43 surveying and ofﬁcial mapping in the low …...numbers correspond with the hierarchical order...

43 • Surveying and Official Mapping in the LowCountries, 1500–ca. 1670

Cornelis Koeman and Marco van Egmond

1246

Early Mapping of the Low Countries and the Historical-PoliticalBackground of Cartographic

Development

The international reputation of official cartography in theLow Countries has always stood in the shadow of itscommercial counterpart. One explanation for this phe-nomenon is that governmental agencies produced farfewer maps than did commercial publishers. In addition,official cartographic material enjoyed relatively limiteddistribution, both nationally and internationally. Non-Dutch historical cartographic literature primarily focuseson commercial maps, deemphasizing official cartographyin the Low Countries.

Nevertheless, a history of mapping in the Low Coun-tries would not be complete without consideration of theofficial branch of the mapmaking industry.1 Indeed, offi-cial maps often provided significantly more informationabout origin, purpose, and function than did commercialmaps, and this had to do with the process of mapmaking.A review of the history of mapmaking in the Low Coun-tries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ought tobegin with a description of the official surveying and map-ping in the area.

Such an account is difficult to understand, however,without knowing the complex historical-political devel-opment of the Low Countries after the Middle Ages.Sweeping changes in the political establishment of theLow Countries after the sixteenth century led to equallycomprehensive changes in the governing bodies that wereresponsible for the publication of maps. Given this insti-tutional variety, political concepts such as “the Nether-lands” (Nederland), “the Low Countries” (Nederlandenor Lage Landen), “the Seventeen Provinces” (ZeventienProvinciën), “the Seven Provinces” (Zeven Provinciën),and “Holland” (Holland) tend to cause considerable con-fusion outside the Low Countries and even among peoplewithin the Dutch language region. Therefore, we first ex-amine the constitutional background of the Low Coun-tries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before dis-cussing official mapping during this era.

The geographical term “the Netherlands” in its narrowsense refers to the modern kingdom of the Netherlands.

In the wider sense in which the term was used in the lateMiddle Ages, the area included the whole of the modernkingdom of the Netherlands (broadly coinciding with theNorthern Provinces) and Belgium together with the grandduchy of Luxembourg and small parts of northern Franceand western Germany (broadly coinciding with theSouthern Provinces). That group of seventeen provincesconstituted the so-called Burgundischer Kreis (BurgundyCircle), under the political influence of the Burgundianand Habsburg dynasties (fig. 43.1).

The toponymic explanation of the term “the Nether-lands” refers to the word neder, which is ancient for neer,meaning low (cf. German, nieder). But to translate theterm “Low Countries” as “the Netherlands” is not cor-rect. In order to avoid confusion in this chapter deal-ing with the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, “LowCountries” is used rather than “the Netherlands” becausethe latter term was not used until 1815.

Another toponym that can be confusing is “Holland.”Many people today, primarily foreigners, use the term“Holland” when they mean “the Netherlands” (Neder-land). Historically, “Holland” was used to denote theprovince that included only the territory now known asthe provinces of North and South Holland.

With regard to the names used for the Low Countrieson sixteenth-century maps, Sebastian Münster, in hisCosmography (1544), included the Low Countries in“Die drit Tafel des Rheinstroms, inhaltend das niderTeutschlandt.” Gerardus Mercator, in his Tabula geo-graphicae Galliae, Belgii Inferioris & Germaniae (theprecursor of his Atlas) of 1585, named his special sectionof province maps “Belgii Inferioris geographicæ

Abbreviations used in this chapter include: MCN for Günter Schilder,Monumenta cartographica Neerlandica (Alphen aan den Rijn:Canaletto, 1986 –).

1. The most comprehensive work on the history of the cartographyof the Low Countries is C. Koeman’s Geschiedenis van de kartografievan Nederland: Zes eeuwen landen zeekaarten en stadsplattegronden(Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1983). For a typology of the map ma-terial of the Low Countries, see Y. Marijke Donkersloot–De Vrij,Topografische kaarten van Nederland uit de 16de tot en met de 19de

eeuw: Een typologische toelichting ten behoeve van het gebruik vanoude kaarten bij landschapsonderzoek (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto,1995).

Surveying and Official Mapping in the Low Countries, 1500–ca. 1670 1247

tabul[a]e.”2 The term “Belgica” was generally acceptedin the classical literature and more broadly until 1585;“Germania Inferior” was sometimes used, and “Neder-land” was seldom used.3

Centuries before the kingdom of the Netherlands wasformed, the seventeen provinces of the Low Countrieswere at the point of being welded into one united state(the last province, Gelder, came under the control of theLow Countries in 1543) by the efforts of the Burgundianand Habsburg dynasties. But the outbreak of a civil warwith Spain in 1567 not only prevented unification butended in a final separation. A rebellion of all the prov-inces against Spanish centralization under the rule of KingPhilip II of Spain led to an uprising in which the Refor-mation played a dominant role.

The national history of the northern part of the LowCountries, later called the kingdom of the Netherlands,has its roots in the so-called Religievrede (religious peace)of 1578, followed by a political integration of thoseprovinces no longer under Spanish rule in the Union ofUtrecht, concluded in 1579. This union united the sover-eign provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Groningen,Friesland, Gelderland, and Overijssel in defense againstthe Spanish administration’s forceful and cruel persecu-tion of the Protestant religion,4 renouncing Philip II in1581. After failed experiments with other sovereigns, theRepublic of the Seven United Provinces was proclaimedin 1588. In addition to the seven provinces just men-tioned, of which Holland was the most powerful, thisconfederation included the province of Drenthe—whichhad its own government but did not enjoy comprehensivevoting rights—and the conquered areas in Brabant, Lim-burg, and Flanders. Within the republic, political powerwas held by the states of each province, which governedits territories independently. Only those issues that ex-tended across borders, such as foreign policy and defense,were resolved communally by means of the States Generalin The Hague, where every state had representatives.

In 1648, by means of the Treaty of Münster, Spain of-ficially recognized the Republic of the Seven United Prov-inces. From then on, the idea of seventeen united prov-inces was abandoned. Yet the idea was kept alive onseveral maps, as demonstrated by the title of Frederik deWit’s Belgii XVII Provinciarum tabula, published before1661 (fig. 43.2).5 Every general map from the sixteenthcentury featured the Seventeen Provinces. Separate mapsof the northern or southern Netherlands were not pub-lished before 1600, even though the northern Nether-lands was, in large measure, independent from 1579 on-ward. It was not until well into the seventeenth centurythat publishers dared to produce and sell maps of theSeven Provinces, whereas general maps of the SeventeenProvinces were still distributed widely until about 1800.6

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fig. 43.1. THE SEVENTEEN PROVINCES, 1543–67. Thenumbers correspond with the hierarchical order of the maps inMercator’s atlas. Numbers 1–4 are duchies, 5–11 counties, 12the margravate of the Holy Roman Empire, and 13–17seignories.Based on Peter Van der Krogt, “Dutch Atlas Cartography andthe Peace of Munster,” in La Paz de Münster / The Peace ofMunster, 1648: Actas del Congreso de Conmemoración orga-nizado por la Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen-Cleve 28–30. VIII. 1996, ed. Hugo de Schepper, ChristianTümpel, and J. J. V. M. de Vet (Barcelona: Idea Books, 2000),113–26, esp. 118.

2. See Peter van der Krogt, Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici (’t Goy-Houten: HES, 1997–), 1:44 – 49 (no. 1:001).

3. Van der Heijden, for example, mentions fifty-three maps of theLow Countries that have survived from the sixteenth century, twenty-four of which bear the name “Belgica” or some variant thereof (“Gal-lia Belgica,” “Belgium,” “Leo Belgicus”). At least eighteen times, how-ever, the Low Countries are designated as “Germania Inferior.” Theterm “Nederland” is used only twice. See H. A. M. van der Heijden,Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 1548–1794: Historische beschouwing,kaartbeschrijving, afbeelding, commentaar/Old Maps of the Nether-lands, 1548–1794: An Annotated and Illustrated Cartobibliography,2 vols. (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto/Repro-Holland; Leuven: Uni-versitaire Pers, 1998), 1:67.

4. See Jonathan Irvine Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Great-ness, and Fall, 1477–1806, 2d ed., rev. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998).

5. Regarding this map, see Van der Heijden, Oude kaarten der Ne-derlanden, 1:479.

6. See Van der Heijden, Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 1:95–122.

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From Picture to Map: The Birth of a Modern Cartography

the oldest national, regional, and local maps

The emergence of Dutch cartography—and of a Dutchcontribution to cartographic science and map produc-tion—corresponds to the early mapping of the LowCountries.7 Until recently, it was believed that the first mapof the Low Countries in their entirety appeared in the Ital-ian (Venice) edition of Ptolemy’s Geography in 1548.Flandria Barbantia E. Holanda Nov. provided a fairlycomplete view of the territory of the Low Countries, al-though various place-names were misspelled and the ex-ternal shape, specifically of the Zuiderzee and Friesland,left something to be desired.8 Recently, however, Meurerfound an older manuscript map of the Low Countries,which he cautiously attributes to the London printer andpublisher Reyner Wolfe (see fig. 54.8).9 This map, fromabout 1539, is based on a map from the 1520s—whichhas not survived—by Jan van Hoirne (also known as Jande Beeldsnijder) of Antwerp.10 Beginning in 1570, Abra-ham Ortelius included mention of this map in the “Cata-logus Auctorum” in his Theatrum under the title “Ioannesà Horn, Germaniæ Inferioris Tabulam: Antverpiæ.” Al-though Ortelius did not supply a date, the English “copy”of Van Hoirne’s map leaves no doubt that it is the oldestmap of the Low Countries. The precise representation ofcertain territories on Wolfe’s map suggests that it wasbased on a survey, but this cannot be proved.11

It is thus not clear whether the previously mentionedmaps were the results of surveys, and this same uncer-tainty applies to the oldest printed regional maps. Onlytwo known printed regional maps of the Low Countriesare dated before 1530. One is a woodcut map of thecoastal area of the Low Countries extending into the Ger-man Bight and including Denmark. It was sold atAntwerp by Jan van Hoirne without a title. In 1525, theprivilege was granted to Van Hoirne to print a “Kaart vande Oosterscher Zee”; three fragments of one of the sheetsare known: a fragment with a portion of a cartouche andtwo fragments depicting the Low Countries and a set ofcompass lines radiating from the town of Hoorn(fig. 43.3).12 It is debated whether this map was intendedto be used as a nautical chart, because it also contains in-formation of value for land travel. Although the coastlineof Flanders, Holland, the Zuiderzee, and Friesland werefairly well sketched, the map was not based on a survey;Van Hoirne must have relied on an existing map.13

The second printed regional map of the Low Countriesbefore 1530 consists of two fragments of a woodcut mapof an extension of the Bishopric of Utrecht, presumablyprinted in 1524, discovered in the binding of a book(fig. 43.4). In his analysis of this map, Van ’t Hoff associ-


ates its origin with the political outcome of the election ofa new bishop of Utrecht in 1524.14 The province ofUtrecht, at that time a bishopric not under the adminis-tration of King Charles V, had chosen a foreigner, Hen-drik II of Bavaria, as its new bishop. In the records of thebishopric, mention is made of a deputation from Utrechtto Bavaria to invite Hendrik II to move into the LowCountries. The woodcut map of the diocese was presum-ably made to demonstrate to the new bishop the denselypopulated extension of Friesland and Overijssel. Themapmaker thus placed a great deal of emphasis onchurches and cloisters by depicting the buildings true tolife. This perspective drawing demonstrated, as did noother technique, the power of the church.

Presumably, just enough copies of this woodcut mapwere printed to be distributed at the court of Bavaria. Asecond edition or a derivative map is not known. Such anad hoc presentation of topographic information in theform of a woodcut map was luxurious, when a neatlydrawn map on parchment would have been sufficient.15

7. The adjective “Dutch” is used in the Netherlands as well as Bel-gium, and is here referring to the whole of the Low Countries.

8. Van der Heijden also mentions the woodcut map of the Ooster-scher Zee by Jan van Hoirne from 1526 (Oude kaarten der Nederlan-den, 1:12–16).

9. See Peter H. Meurer, “Op het spoor van de kaart der Nederlandenvan Jan van Hoirne,” Caert-Thresoor 21 (2002): 33– 40. The map wasdrawn on the occasion of the journey made by Anne of Cleves in the au-tumn of 1539 to London, where she was to marry Henry VIII.

10. On Van Hoirne, see Robert W. Karrow, Mapmakers of the Six-teenth Century and Their Maps: Bio-Bibliographies of the Cartogra-phers of Abraham Ortelius, 1570 (Chicago: For the Newberry Libraryby Speculum Orbis Press, 1993), 316.

11. This possibility was not ruled out by Arend W. Lang in “Tracesof Lost North European Sea Charts of the 15th Century,” ImagoMundi 12 (1955): 31– 44.

12. Van der Heijden, Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 1:137–38; Bert van ’t Hoff and L. J. Noordhoff, “Een kaart van de Nederlanden ende ‘Oosterscherzee’ gedrukt door Jan de Beeldesnyder van Hoirne teAntwerpen in 1526,” Het Boek 31 (1953): 151–56; and Bert van ’tHoff, “Jan van Hoirne’s Map of the Netherlands and the ‘OosterscherZee’ Printed in Antwerp in 1526,” Imago Mundi 11 (1954): 136. Thefragments are located in the Gemeentearchief, Groningen.

13. See Van der Heijden, Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 1:16 –18.14. Bert van ’t Hoff, “The Oldest Maps of the Netherlands: Dutch

Map Fragments of about 1524,” Imago Mundi 16 (1962): 29–32, andY. Marijke Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografische kaarten van Nederlandvóór 1750: Handgetekende en gedrukte kaarten, aanwezig in de Ne-derlandse rijksarchieven (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff and Bouma’sBoekhuis, 1981), 128 (no. 646). Grenacher has suggested that thewoodblocks for this map were cut by the same person who did the cut-ting for the map “Tabvla Nova Heremi Helvetiorv” in Martin Wald-seemüller’s edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia (Strasbourg, 1513); seeFranz Grenacher, “The Woodcut Map: A Form-Cutter of Maps Wan-ders through Europe in the First Quarter of the Sixteenth Century,”Imago Mundi 24 (1970): 31– 40.

15. It is likely that such manuscript maps “for the occasion” were fre-quently enclosed in the official mail of those years. An example of amanuscript map discovered in the file of correspondence between the

1250 State Contexts of Renaissance Mapping

Local mapmaking developed first in the SouthernProvinces, and records of surveying activity in Flanderspredate those in the Northern Provinces by about a cen-tury. More or less as a consequence, the oldest survivingmanuscript property map, representing a piece of land inFlanders, dates from 1307, while the oldest surviving car-tographic document from the Northern Provinces datesfrom a half century later, 1357.16 This chronology paral-lels the economic and cultural development in the LowCountries. The period of Antwerp’s supremacy was ap-proximately one century earlier than that of the cities inthe Northern Provinces. A representative map of Ant-werp’s period of dominance is a five-meters-long manu-script map from 1468 of the Scheldt River, the artery forcommerce and trade in the Low Countries.17

fig. 43.3. KAART VAN DE OOSTERSCHER ZEE, BY JANVAN HOIRNE, 1526.Size of the original: ca. 42 � 62 cm. Photograph courtesy of

the Regional Historical Center, Groningen Archieven, Gronin-gen (THAG 6835).

16. On the former, see M. K. Elisabeth Gottschalk, Historische geo-grafie van westelijk Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, 2 vols. (Assen: Van Gorcum,1955–58), 1:148– 49, and Antoine De Smet, “Oude landmeters-kaarten, bronnen voor de historische geografie,” in Bronnen voor dehistorische geografie van België: Handelingen van het Colloquium teBrussel, 25–27 April 1979 (Brussels: A.R.-A.G.R., 1980), 228– 40,esp. 228–29. On the latter, see M. K. Elisabeth Gottschalk, “De oud-ste kartografische weergave van een deel van Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen,”Archief: Vroegere en Latere Mededelingen Voornamelijk in Betrekkingtot Zeeland Uitgegeven door het Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Weten-schappen (1948): 29–39. See also P. D. A. Harvey’s chronological listof local maps and plans from the Low Countries before 1550 in his “Lo-cal and Regional Cartography in Medieval Europe,” HC 1:464 –501,esp. 499–500. For a list of manuscript maps of the Low Countries fromthe period 1300–1500, see also Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografischekaarten . . . 16de tot en met de 19de eeuw, 9.

17. M. K. Elisabeth Gottschalk and W. S. Unger, “De oudste kaartender waterwegen tussen Brabant, Vlaanderen en Zeeland,” Tijdschriftvan het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, 2dser., 67 (1950): 146 –64, and Jan van der Stock, ed., Antwerpen: Ver-haal van een metropool 16de–17de eeuw (Ghent: Snoeck-Ducaju &Zoon, 1993), 151 (cat. 5). The map is located in Brussels, AlgemeenRijksarchief, Kaarten en Plattegronden (inv. nr. 351). Apart from thecopy of 1468, another map of the Schelde of 1505 has been preservedin Antwerp, Stadsarchief. See Van der Stock, Antwerpen, 151 (cat. 6).

court at Brussels and the court at Vienna, dated 1524, covers the riverdistrict of Gelre (Gelderland), the last “hostile” area in the Low Coun-tries of King Charles V. The map is now in Vienna, ÖsterreichischesStaatsarchiv, Section Belgien, D.D.237, fol. 387. See the illustration inKoeman, Geschiedenis, 82, and on the dust jacket.


the development of a dutch cartographic style

As elsewhere in medieval Europe, few maps were made in the Low Countries and people were relatively unfamil-iar with maps and their use; only fifteen local maps andplans from the Low Countries before 1500 have sur-vived. These medieval maps—often no more than roughsketches—were produced for official purposes, such asthe settlement of border conflicts or the location of prop-erty.18 There is a close resemblance between them andFrench fifteenth-century boundary dispute maps discov-ered by Dainville.19

One of the most striking examples of early Dutch topo-graphic maps is the set of manuscript town plans sur-veyed by Jacob van Deventer in the years 1555–75. Onlyin Italy was a similar early style of orthogonal represen-

tation of the cities’ topography present, first exempli-fied by Leonardo da Vinci’s manuscript plan of Imola of 1502.20 The resemblance between Leonardo’s style and that of Van Deventer is apparent because the or-thogonal view of town plans was quite uncommon dur-ing the entire sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the useof oblique perspectives prevailed, following an Italian tra-dition from the fifteenth century.21

Another model of pictorial representation of towns fa-vored by Dutch artists was profiles, supplemented by alarger-scale depiction of the terrain in the foreground.The earliest known printed town profile in the LowCountries is the large two-meters-wide profile of Antwerp(ca. 1515) representing what would become a quintes-sentially Dutch style in the early seventeenth century.

The painter Antoon van den Wijngaerde (Antoin de la Vigne, Antonio de las Viñas) was instrumental in de-veloping a perspective style of drawing.22 He startedpainting and drawing in the southern part of the LowCountries and Italy, then moved to London, and ended up, about 1562, in Spain. From his Dutch /Italian period stem the drawings of several towns in perspective view

fig. 43.4. PART OF THE BISHOPRIC OF UTRECHT, CA.1524. One of the two preserved fragments of the woodcut mapof an extension of the bishopric. Depicted are the IJssel andVecht regions.Size of the original: 34.5 � 21.5 cm. Photograph courtesy ofthe Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden (Collection B.N. 20071M4 [2]).

18. For a list of these maps, see Harvey, “Local and Regional Car-tography,” 499–500.

19. François de Dainville, “Cartes et contestations au XVe siècle,”Imago Mundi 24 (1970): 99–121; C. Koeman, “Die Darstellungs-methoden von Bauten auf alten Karten,” in Land- und Seekarten imMittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit, ed. C. Koeman (Munich: KrausInternational, 1980), 147–92; and John A. Pinto, “Origins and Devel-opment of the Ichnographic City Plan,” Journal of the Society of Archi-tectural Historians 35, no. 1 (1976): 35–50. See also chapter 21 in thisvolume, on cartographic signs.

20. Plan of Imola, in the collection of Her Majesty Queen ElizabethII, Windsor Castle (MS. 12284); see figures 27.1 and 36.16 and Pinto,“Ichnographic City Plan,” 37– 42.

21. For example, the large engraving of an oblique view of Florencefrom about 1485, by Francesco Rosselli (illustrated and described inVan der Stock, Antwerpen, 154 [cat. 9]), was an inspiration, as is ap-parent from the large view of Antwerp from about 1515 (Antwerp,Stedelijk Prentenkabinet, inv. nr. 20.839). The unprecedented and mon-umental oblique view of Venice by Jacopo de’ Barbari from 1500 in-spired a plan of Amsterdam by Cornelis Anthonisz., painted in 1538and printed in 1544. See Giandomenico Romanelli, Susanna Biadene,and Camillo Tonini, eds., “A volo d’uccello”: Jacopo de’ Barbari e lerappresentazioni di città nell’Europa del Rinascimento, exhibition cat-alog (Venice: Arsenale Editrice, 1999), esp. 168. On the use of perspec-tive in the painted plan of Amsterdam of 1538, see Maikel Niël, “Deperspectivische ruimteweergave van het Gezicht in vogelvlucht op Am-sterdam van Cornelis Anthonisz.,” Caert-Thresoor 19 (2000): 107–13.

22. Van den Wijngaerde’s life has recently been well documented; seeMontserrat Galera, Antoon van den Wijngaerde, pintor de ciutats i defets d’armes a l’Europa del Cinc-cents: Cartobibliografía raonada delsdibuixos i gravats, i assaig de recontrucció documental de l’obra pic-tòrica ([Madrid]: Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya,1998), and StefaanHautekeete, “Van Stad en Land: Het beeld van Brabant in de vroegetopografische tekenkunst,” in Met passer en penseel: Brussel en hetoude hertogdom Brabant in beeld (Koninklijke Musea voor SchoneKunsten van België, Brussel) (Brussels: Dexia Bank, 2000), 49–51.

(fig. 43.5).23 Unlike the oblique views of Jacopo de’ Bar-bari (Venice, 1500) and Cornelis Anthonisz. (Amsterdam,1538), Van den Wijngaerde’s were plotted on a large scalein the foreground and on a small scale in the distance.24

The impressive dimensions of his oblique views allowedfor a detailed topography, most useful for the study ofhistorical geography. For example, his perspective of theisland of Walcheren with the Scheldt River [1550] con-sists of twenty-three sheets that are more than ten metersin length when put together.25 Although in a differentclass than artists who produced town plans, property orcadastral surveyors of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-turies also sketched a lot of pictorial detail in their maps,such as steeples of church towers, windmills, and locks incanals, which were abundant landmarks in the flat terrainof the Low Countries.

Some sixteenth-century mapmakers employed muchlarger scales, giving rise to maps of enormous dimensions.Pierre Pourbus was a mapmaker and painter activemainly in Flanders who had been employed as a cartog-rapher by various authorities in the province of Flandersto produce manuscript river maps, property maps, andtown plans. In 1561, he was commissioned by the gov-ernment of the Vrije van Brugge (Freedom of Bruges) tomap the territory around the town and under its jurisdic-tion, an area of about 35 by 70 kilometers.26 The projectrequired him to measure the boundary of the jurisdictionwith all the villages, roads, rivers, bridges, and individualhouses, and to draw a detailed topographical map basedon a highly precise survey. In Pourbus’s progress reports,


he described his techniques: a type of triangulation be-tween church towers and traversing the roads.27 The re-

fig. 43.5. PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF UTRECHT BY AN-TOON VAN DEN WIJNGAERDE, CA. 1558. In three sheets.

23. Van den Wijngaerde drew town plans of Amsterdam [1550?],Brussels (1558), Utrecht [1554 –58], Dordrecht [1544], ’s-Hertogen-bosch [ca. 1544], and Sluis (1557–58); see Galera, Antoon van denWijngaerde, 207, and the series Historische plattegronden van Neder-landse steden (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1978–), esp. vol. 1, Am-sterdam, with an introduction by W. Hofman. The town view of Am-sterdam (150 � 43 cm) is in the Gemeentearchief. The other views ofDutch towns are in Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, where the three-meter drawing of London is also kept, and in Antwerp, NationaalScheepvaartmuseum. A facsimile of the city view of Utrecht is in His-torische plattegronden van Nederlandse steden, 3:1.

24. For the purposes of his perspective views, Van den Wijngaerdemade use of three types of preparatory studies: (1) a sketch of the town’ssurroundings; (2) a view of a portion of the whole town, either true tolife, from a natural height or from a tower, or based on an existing model;and (3) detailed studies of individual buildings or groups of buildings. SeeHautekeete, “Van Stad en Land,” 50, and Bert van ’t Hoff, “Une vuepanoramique inconnue de Bruxelles dessinée en 1558 par Anthonis vanden Wyngaerde,” Annales de la Société Royale d’Archéologie de Bru-xelles: Mémoires, Rapports et Documents 48 (1948–55): 145–50.

25. See Galera, Antoon van den Wijngaerde, 192–93. A facsimile ofeighteen numbered segments is in M. P. de Bruin, “De Zelandiae De-scriptio”: Het panorama van Walcheren uit 1550 (Maastricht:Deltaboek, 1984).

26. Antoine De Smet, “A Note on the Cartographic Work of PierrePourbus, Painter of Bruges,” Imago Mundi 4 (1947): 33–36; idem,“Oude landmeterskaarten, bronnen voor de historische geografie,”228– 40; and Paul Huvenne, Pieter Pourbus: Meester-schilder, 1524 –1584, exhibition catalog ([Brussels]: Gemeentekrediet, 1984).

27. See Paul Huvenne, “De kaart van het Vrije in het kader van levenen werk van Pieter Pourbus,” in Het Brugse Vrije in beeld: Facsimile-

Size of the entire original: 14.4 � 83.6. Photograph courtesyof the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (acc. no. WA.C. IV. 105b).


fig. 43.5. (continued)

sult of his work, finished in 1571, was a very large mapat a scale of about 1:12,000. It was painted in oil and intended to be hung, in this case in the governor’s resi-dence. Unfortunately, the original was damaged and in1601 was replaced with a copy by Pieter Claeissens(fig. 43.6).28

maps by land surveyors

The designation “surveyor” is sometimes misused in theliterature. Frequently, those who conduct measurementsin one way or another are identified as surveyors. Theearly surveyor, however, was concerned with land ac-counting, made measurements in connection with real es-tate, was sworn (a “sworn land surveyor” or, later, an“admitted land surveyor”), and had to prove his compe-tence before receiving an appointment.29 Geographers,fortress builders, city architects, monks, and military en-gineers certainly made measurements at this time, butthey were not surveyors in the professional sense.

The earliest use of the word landmeter (land surveyor)in Dutch can be found in the city archive in Bruges(Brugge) and dates from 1282.30 Early survey activitieswere registered by the Diocese of Utrecht in 1312 in con-nection with land reclamation.31 Central administrationof property was at that time conducted by the bishop ofUtrecht in his domain and by the count of Holland in hisprovince. A land surveyor called “Monekijn die Landme-ter” was permanently employed by the count of Hollandbetween 1300 and 1320.32

uitgave van de Grote Kaart geschilderd door Pieter Pourbus (1571) engekopieerd door Pieter Claeissens (1601), ed. Bart van der Herten(Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto/Repro-Holland, 1998), 21–25,esp. 21–23.

28. A fragment of the original and the whole copy of 1601 are inBruges, Stadsarchief. For a facsimile of the preserved fragment, the copyfrom 1601, and a lithograph from 1852 with a summary of the sheetarrangement, see Het Brugse Vrije in beeld. Among other things, thetext of this work includes an analysis of the accuracy of the map of thefree region of Bruges, which is placed in historical-geographical per-spective, and there is a list of toponyms. Other maps by Pourbus includeKaart van de wateringen van Broucke en Moerkerke-Zuid-over-Leie(1573), Bruges, Rijksarchief; Kaart van de watering van Rom-boutswerve (1578), private collection; Kaart van het eiland Cadzand(1578), Bruges, Stadsarchief; and the plan of the so-called Duinenabdij(1580), Bruges, Stedelijke Musea, Arentshuis.

29. H. C. Pouls, De landmeter: Inleiding in de geschiedenis van deNederlandse landmeetkunde van de Romeinse tot de Franse tijd (Alphenaan den Rijn: Canaletto/Repro-Holland, 1997), 9, and E. Muller andK. Zandvliet, eds., Admissies als landmeter in Nederland voor 1811:Bronnen voor de geschiedenis van de landmeetkunde en haar toepas-sing in administratie, architectuur, kartografie en vesting- en water-bouwkunde (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1987), 10–19 (a reper-tory of admissions of sworn land surveyors at the courts of the Dutchprovinces, fifteenth century to the nineteenth).

30. Antoine De Smet, “Landmeterstraditie en oude kaarten van Vlaan-deren,” Verslagen en mededelingen van De Leiegouw: Vereniging voorde studie van de lokale geschiedenis, taal en folklore in het Kortrijkse 8(1966): 209–18, esp. 210, and Muller and Zandvliet, Admissies, 7.

31. Jan Willem Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, Regesten van oorkon-den betreffende de bisschoppen van Utrecht, uit de jaren, 1301–1340(Utrecht: Broekhoff n.v. v/h Kemink, 1937), 91, 98, and 100.

32. C. Wijffels, “De oudste rekeningen der stad Aerdenberg (1309–1310) en de opstand van 1311,” Tijdschrift Archief van het ZeeuwsGenootschap, 1949–50, 10. For a more complete review of the earliestsurveyors’ activities, see Pouls, De landmeter, 36 – 40.


The primary activities of the medieval surveyor con-sisted of boundary definition, surface area measurement,and land allotment. In addition, surveyors participated inmaking judicial decisions concerning disputes over prop-erty and grazing rights. Training schools for land survey-ors did not exist: knowledge was acquired from older,more experienced surveyors.

Although surveyors were active in the Low Countriesas early as the fourteenth century, it is not likely that theywere involved in mapmaking during the Middle Ages. Atmost, they might have made simple field drawings of aparcel with a complex shape, outlining a geometric fig-ure. They preferred written reports over illustrated mapsas a way of handling their survey data.33 The records wereopen to interested parties for their perusal, and in casesof disagreement, measurements were redone or judicialproceedings were eventually initiated. Only very gradu-ally did maps come into use in registration of deeds, thedemand for which began in the western provinces andsubsequently spread to the more eastern regions.

Indeed, shortly after 1500, the realization sweptthrough Europe that maps offered untold possibilities,and this burgeoning consciousness ushered in an explo-sive increase in the demand for cartographic information

in the Low Countries. Maps were increasingly used forland accounting, military operations, and water control.Parallel to this development, sixteenth-century swornland surveyors became involved in mapmaking, while ge-ographers and fortress builders became proficient at mea-suring terrain. It was especially during the second half ofthe sixteenth century that many certified surveyors mas-tered the measurement techniques necessary for makingreliable maps. These activities, however, still fell outsidethe normal exercise of their profession. Separate contractswere thus also negotiated between surveyors and their pa-trons.34 At first, surveyors mapped mainly smaller parcelsof land using a measuring chain and Dutch circle,35 whilelarger parcels of land were mapped by geographers. Withthe increasing use of the measuring chain and compass,surveyors were gradually able to measure larger areas andmap them without too much distortion. Nonetheless,

fig. 43.6. COPY BY PIETER CLAEISSENS OF THE 1571MAP OF THE VRIJE VAN BRUGGE BY PIERRE POURBUS,1601.

33. See Dirk de Vries, “Official Cartography in the Netherlands,” inLa cartografia dels Països Baixos (Barcelona: Institut Cartogràfic deCatalunya, 1995), 19–69, esp. 21, and Pouls, De landmeter, 55.

34. Pouls, De landmeter, 75–76.35. For an extensive review of the instruments that surveyors in the

Low Countries have used throughout history, see Pouls, De landmeter.

Size of the original: 361 � 614 cm; size of the copy: 151 �322.5 cm. Photograph courtesy of the Stadsarchief, Bruges.

measuring plots and developing, maintaining, and im-proving the registries for traditional employers—the wa-terschappen (water control boards; can also refer to thearea controlled by the board) and the provincial authorities—remained the primary duties of sixteenth-century land surveyors. In addition, they became involvedin the settlement of boundary disputes at the provinciallevel more often than they had been in the Middle Ages.

Beginning in the middle of the sixteenth century, reli-gious institutions as well as private individuals in the LowCountries began to have their properties measured andmapped by surveyors.36 It is unclear whether this was be-cause surveyors had already become involved in map-making or whether demand was the cause of their in-creased activity. The purpose of the resulting maps is thatkaartboeken (map books: sets of precadastral manuscriptmaps bound in a book) were produced for land account-ing and for the administration of property. A kaartboekgenerally consisted of assembled maps and registriesbound together (plate 48). It often included blank pagesintended for later notations to be made by the land au-thorities. Small notations were sometimes also made onthe maps themselves. Although the functions of theseprecadastral maps cannot always be determined, theywere largely related to the administration of institutionallandownership. As such, they provided the admitted sur-veyors a significant source of income.37

In the course of the sixteenth century, Gemma Frisius,professor of mathematics at Louvain, published the firstprinciples of triangulation, which he called the “voor-waartse snijding” (forward section; see pp. 483 and 1297–98). This new method was not suitable for measuringsmall numbers of parcels. Larger areas, however, could bemeasured reliably with the aid of the forward section. Sur-veyors thus made increasing use of this method over time,with the waterschappen their most important customers.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the landsurveyor had finally established a clear place for himself inthe social order of the Low Countries. Whereas he hadworked primarily in the service of the sovereign during theMiddle Ages, he had now developed into an independenttradesman. Various provinces granted individuals permis-sion to practice as surveyors within those provinces oncethey had demonstrated their competence.38 Surveyorsplayed an important role in dike building and the largeland reclamation projects, which led to more civil andtechnical tasks. Beginning in 1600, more and more geog-raphy books began to appear in the Dutch language, andthese were of considerable assistance in the theoretical andmathematical education of aspiring surveyors. The mostcommon task of the seventeenth-century surveyor re-mained the measurement of real estate for the purposes ofpurchase, sale, lease, or tax increase. Other survey activi-ties during this period had to do with land reclamation,


boundary definition, and hydraulic works.39 As a result ofthese activities, there was an increasing demand for tech-nical drawings, plans, and maps.

Geography books of the seventeenth century pay littleattention to the careful measurement and mapping of out-lying areas. Such work was apparently not part of theusual responsibilities of surveyors, and large-scale re-gional mapping by surveyors was probably never doneoutside the waterschappen.40 It was primarily military en-gineers who surveyed and mapped the larger areas.

maps for legal use and the introduction of the scale map

Many maps were produced in the Low Countries as a re-sult of judicial questions. These maps were almost exclu-sively manuscripts used in legal proceedings and bound-ary adjustments. Printed maps were used in a few cases,and handwritten notes were made on them. The very old-est local and regional maps of the Low Countries belongto the category of judicial maps.

In Dutch law, in matters of property boundary cases itwas not customary for the judge himself to visit the spotor to know it personally. Only witnesses and documentswere used to arrive at a judgment. Maps produced for le-gal proceedings were supposed to provide insight into aspecific, disputed local situation. The proceedings mightconcern, for example, the construction of a dike, fishingrights, or lease arrangements. In most cases, little atten-tion was paid to the production of the accompanyingsketch maps, which may have been prepared by a trained

36. See, for example, the map book of the royal family of Nassau,with the maps of their possessions in Westland (in the western portionof present-day South Holland), which has appeared in facsimile with ex-tensive explanation: A. P. van Vliet, G. Beijer, and A. F. Middelburg,Kaartboek van het Westland: Kaartboek van de domeinen in het West-land vervaardigd door landmeter Floris Jacobszoon in de jaren 1615–1634 (Naaldwijk: Stichting Stimulering Historische Publikaties West-land, 1999). See also Peter van der Krogt and Ferjan Ormeling, “Eenhandleiding voor kaartgebruik met een legendalandje uit 1554,” Caert-Thresoor 21 (2002): 41– 46. In this connection, Donkersloot–De Vrijmentions sixty-seven map books and map series that are located in oneof the Dutch state archives; see Topografische kaarten van Nederlandvóór 1750, 162–74. Work is currently being done at the UniversiteitUtrecht by M. Storms and E. Heere that will lead to historical carto-graphic and geographic dissertation research on this topic. Currentlyabout 350 of these map books are known.

37. Pouls, De landmeter, 91, and Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografischekaarten van Nederland vóór 1750, 39.

38. For a regional view of surveyor admissions, see Muller and Zand-vliet, Admissies.

39. See, for example, the monograph on the activities of surveyors in the northern part of Holland: Chris Streefkerk, Jan W. H. Werner,and Frouke Wieringa, eds., Perfect gemeten: Landmeters in HollandsNoorderkwartier ca. 1550–1700 (Holland: Stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland, 1994).

40. Pouls, De landmeter, 227.

surveyor, but often were not. Given the fact that the ma-jority of these maps have been lost from the archives overtime, chiefly because they have been filed away separatelyin special map collections, it is no longer easy to tell towhich judicial questions they may have related.41

There is a clear record of at least one superficial surveyof the province of North Holland (the main roads anddikes only) in 1508. This region was critical for the coun-try’s defense against the sea. The two earliest manuscriptmaps of this province date from 1529 and were drawn bythe versatile town architect and the director of the Boardof Public Buildings of Amsterdam, Willem Hendricksz.Croock, and both documents were used to inform thejudges in a lawsuit in the high court at Mechelen.42 Croockwas an important pioneer with respect to the use of scalein maps, and his two manuscript maps of the northernportion of Holland are reliable from a geometric point ofview (fig. 43.7). Despite their crude appearance, the mapsprovide reasonably precise distances and orientations.


fig. 43.7. MANUSCRIPT MAP OF THE NORTHERN PARTOF HOLLAND BY WILLEM HENDRICKSZ. CROOCK,1529/30. One of two maps by Croock, it clearly shows con-

41. Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografische kaarten . . . 16de tot en metde 19de eeuw, 13–14. The archives of the high court of the SpanishNetherlands at Mechelen are a rich source of information on carto-graphic illustration of boundary disputes. However, the largest holdingsof manuscript maps covering the Low Countries, over three hundredmaps dated between 1472 and 1600, are to be found in the NationaalArchief at The Hague. The majority are maps of property surveys of thecourt’s domains in Holland and illustrate disputed boundaries: Brussels,Algemeen Rijksarchief GRM (Groote Raad van Mechelen), dossiers475–92, the so-called Beroepen uit Holland (the cases in the province ofHolland). See P. J. Margry, “Drie proceskaarten (Geertruidenberg versusStandhazen) uit 1448,” Caert-Thresoor 3 (1984): 27–33, and A. H.Huussen, “Kartografie en rechterlijke archieven,” NederlandsArchievenblad 82 (1978): 7–15. For a summary and illustrations of themaps in the trial dossiers, see A. H. Huussen, Jurisprudentie en kar-tografie in de XVe en XVIe eeuw (Brussels: Algemeen Rijksarchief, 1974).

42. The map not shown in figure 43.7 is located in the Algemeen Rijks-archief, Brussels (GRM BH no. 610 sub ww 1529/1530). Croock alsomade a mathematically reliable map of Amstelland, which is located inthe Gemeentearchief, Amsterdam (Top. Atlas no. G 110-6). Regardingthese maps, see Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografische kaarten van Ne-derland vóór 1750, 129 (no. 649 and no. 653). See also A. H. Huussen,

cern for scale.Size of the original: 94 � 107 cm. Photograph courtesy of theNationaal Archief, The Hague (VTH 2460).


Regional Topographical Mapping of the Low Countries

Even before the unification of the Northern Provinces, veryprecise maps of Brabant, Holland, Gelderland, Friesland,and Zeeland (1536 – 47) were commissioned from Jacobvan Deventer by the provincial council or the ruling sov-ereign. They were made not for strategic purposes but forgeneral objectives such as administration. These printedmaps marked the beginning of a rich tradition of regionaltopographical mapping in the Low Countries. Between thesecond half of the sixteenth century and the end of the sev-enteenth century, multisheet wall maps were produced forall relatively autonomous areas within the Republic of theSeven United Provinces. Not infrequently, these wall mapswere based on the large-scale mapping done by the watercontrol boards. The extensive mapping of polders andwaterschappen in the second half of the sixteenth centurywas due partly to the reclamation of several lakes and theassociated land accounting (see the section that follows onwaterschap maps). Provincial mapping and the surveyingdone by the polder boards were interdependent.

the first provincial maps to ca. 1550

Thanks to the new mapping methods developed byGemma Frisius, official mapping of the Low Countrieswas able to commence under Charles V. Cartographerssuch as Jacob van Deventer in the Northern Provincesand Jacques Surhon and his son Jean in the SouthernProvinces now had the scientific guidelines necessary forreliable measurement at their disposal.43

Maps of the Northern Provinces by Jacob van Deventer

Jacob van Deventer was likely born in the Hanseatic cityof Kampen around 1505,44 studied in Louvain, and wasthe first to apply triangulation to provincial maps. Infor-mation on his life and activity is limited despite his im-pressive cartographic legacy.45 Beginning in the 1530s,Van Deventer was commissioned by the government tosurvey and map five northern provinces in the Low Coun-tries.46 The first editions of the five provincial maps—ofBrabant (1536), Holland and Utrecht (1542), Gelderland(1543), Zeeland (1547), and Friesland, Groningen, Over-ijssel, and Drenthe (1545)—were engraved (three inwoodcut, two in copper) at a scale of 1:180,000 and prob-ably printed in Mechelen (fig. 43.8 and appendix 43.1),but no impressions of these five maps survive, and they areknown only through archival records and a note in Or-telius’s “Catalogus auctorum,” which mentions “Iacobusà Dauentria, Brabantiae, Hollandiae, Gelriae; Frisiae;Zelandiae Tabulas descripsit & edidit, Mechliniae.”

Holland and Utrecht

Friesland, Groningen, Overijssl, and Drenthe

Brabant

Gelderland

Zeeland

N O R T H S E A

0 10 20

0

miles

km20

fig. 43.8. COVERAGE DIAGRAM OF JACOB VAN DE-VENTER’S PROVINCE MAPS.Based on Y. Marijke Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografischekaarten van Nederland vóór 1750: Handgetekende engedrukte kaarten, aanwezig in de Nederlandse rijksarchieven(Groningen: Wolters Noordhoff and Bouma’s Boekhuis,1981), blw. I.

“Willem Hendricxz. Croock, Amsterdams stadsfabriekmeester, schilderen kartograaf in de eerste helft van de zestiende eeuw,” Jaarboek van hetGenootschap Amstelodamum 64 (1972): 29–53, and De Vries, “Offi-cial Cartography,” 24.

43. Van der Heijden (Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 1:28–31) pro-vides a clear overview of the first Dutch maps of the provinces of theLow Countries in the sixteenth century (1538–81).

44. See J. C. Visser, “Jacob van Deventer alias Van Campen? De jongejaren van een keizerlijk-koninklijk geograaf,” Caert-Thresoor 12(1993): 63–67, and C. Koeman and J. C. Visser, De stadsplattegrondenvan Jacob van Deventer (Landsmeer: Robas, 1992–), introductions tothe different parts.

45. According to Bert van ’t Hoff in Jacob van Deventer: Keizerlijk-koninklijk geograaf (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1953).

46. It is possible that the Dutch statesman Viglius van Aytta played arole in their commissioning and thus also in Van Deventer’s beingnamed imperial geographer, and, later, royal geographer. See Bart vander Herten, “De connectie tussen Jacob van Deventer en Viglius vanAytta in de jaren 1530–1540: Een hypothese,” Caert-Thresoor 14(1995): 59–61. On Van Deventer, see Van ’t Hoff, Jacob van Deventer,4 –6. For an illustrated summary of Van Deventer’s province maps, withcommentary, see MCN, 1:76 –88, and Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topogra-fische kaarten van Nederland vóór 1750, 128, index I.

Copies of these five provincial maps were issued by var-ious publishers between 1556 and 1560, but with the ex-ception of the maps of Gelderland (fig. 43.9) and Zee-land, most impressions of them were destroyed in Breslau(Wrociaw) during World War II. Fortunately, facsimilesof the others had been published in 1941.47 In 1994, Koe-man issued new and improved reproductions, adding re-lated maps, such as Mercator’s map of Flanders (1540)and the Italian versions of the lost first editions engravedby Jakob Bos and published by Michele Tramezzino be-tween 1555 and 1558.48

In addition to these Italian derivations, Van Deventer’sprovince maps enjoyed a considerable number of later edi-tions as well as copies.49 Sebastian Münster was the firstto rework Van Deventer’s basic material into his work. Inhis 1550 Cosmography, he included a very generalizedHolland and Friesland map and mentioned “Jacobus Da-ventriensis Phrisia.” In 1570, Ortelius incorporated someof Van Deventer’s province maps in his Theatrum orbisterrarum in reduced form, acknowledging Van Deventer’sauthorship in the title.50 Gerard de Jode may also havecopied Van Deventer’s province maps. Several of his two-sheet province maps have survived from 1565: those ofFlanders, Holland, and Brabant.51

The emphasis of Van Deventer’s maps was on the lo-cation of towns and villages, and consequently the repre-sentation of rivers, lakes, woods, and rural roads wasdeficient. Van Deventer depicted churches, cloisters, andabbeys in a pictorial style, although he strove for themathematically precise location of every object. More im-portant, he drew each building systematically in anoblique, parallel projection and differentiated the build-ings according to their true size and form.52 The surveyswere undertaken by Van Deventer himself. Proof appearsin the legend of the map of Gelderland, where he men-tioned the church towers of the villages that he had usedas triangulation points. Obviously, Van Deventer appliedthe method of intersection of sights to establish a geo-metrically correct network of fixed points connected withone or more baselines or with two or more churches ofwhich the geographical coordinates were known.53

The strong emphasis on towns, villages, and castles wasordered by Emperor Charles V. The instructions of HisMajesty were incorporated into the legend of the map ofGelderland:

Map of the famous duchy of Guelders, with theboundaries of all the adjacent countries, depicted andmade by order and at the expenses of His Imperial

Majesty as there are: Towns , villages ,


art of Geography. But those places that do not have thissymbol are not so well and perfectly plotted as theothers because one was not free to move and take mea-surement everywhere. However, those places have amore reliable position than in any other map so farpublished.

Van Deventer’s impressive multisheet maps were de-signed and used to decorate the walls of mansions, cas-tles, and palaces. These maps substituted for tapestriesand were made accessible by the invention of letterpressand copperplate printing.54 These sixteenth-century wallmaps hung in the houses of well-to-do citizens and wereconsidered modern maps. Today, one very seldom findslarge, framed, modern topographic maps or road maps

47. Bert van ’t Hoff, De kaarten van de Nederlandsche provinciën inde zestiende eeuw door Jacob van Deventer (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1941), a facsimile edition of the maps that were destroyed inBreslau made from photographs ordered by Van ’t Hoff in 1939, a mostfortunate action for the documentation of the history of cartography ofthe Low Countries. The map of Gelderland is in the Herzog August Bib-liothek, Wolfenbüttel, and the map of Zeeland is in the BibliotecaNazionale Centrale, Florence. In Imago Mundi, Bagrow reports on thelosses during World War II. He mentions the losses of the map collec-tion in what was then the Municipal Library, Breslau, but discusses onlythe loss of the map of Friesland; however, the maps of Brabant, Hol-land, and Zeeland were also destroyed. See Leo Bagrow, “With Fire andSword,” Imago Mundi 4 (1947): 30–31; 5 (1948): 37–38 (A. Codazzi);and 6 (1949): 38.

48. C. Koeman, Gewestkaarten van de Nederlanden door Jacob vanDeventer, 1536 –1545: Met een picturale weergave van alle kerken enkloosters (Alphen aan den Rijn: Stichting tot bevordering van de uitgavevan de stadsplattegronden van Jacob van Deventer–Canaletto, 1994),which contains an English summary. See also R. V. Tooley, “Maps inItalian Atlases of the Sixteenth Century, Being a Comparative List of theItalian Maps Issued by Lafreri, Forlani, Duchetti, Bertelli, and Others,Found in Atlases,” Imago Mundi 3 (1939): 12– 47 (items 142, 218,231, 298, and 300).

49. For a list of later editions and copies, see Koeman, Gewestkaartenvan de Nederlanden, 18–20.

50. See M. P. R. van den Broecke, Ortelius Atlas Maps: An IllustratedGuide (’t Goy-Houten: HES, 1996), 109 and 122–24.

51. On De Jode’s maps, see MCN, 1:89–108.52. Koeman makes a detailed comparison of the illustrations of

church buildings in Van Deventer’s maps with illustrations in prints andphotographs from later centuries (Gewestkaarten van de Nederlanden,26 –36).

53. Peter Mekenkamp and Olev Koop, “Nauwkeurigheid-analysevan oude kaarten met behulp van de computer,” Caert-Thresoor 5(1986): 45–52. Comparison with identical landmarks on modern mapshas resulted in a computer method for performing an accuracy analysisof the relative positions of the church towers on the Van Deventerprovince maps.

54. C. Koeman, Collections of Maps and Atlases in the Netherlands:Their History and Present State (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1961), 19–20. Seealso the map inventory of Viglius de Zuichen described in [Leo Bagrow],“Old Inventories of Maps,” Imago Mundi 5 (1948): 18–20; the inven-tory was first published in Bagrow’s article “The Origin of Ptolemy’s Ge-ographia,” Geografiska Annaler 3– 4 (1945): 318–87.

monasteries , castles , with all the fine and ex-cellent rivers, measured plotted according to the true

fig. 43.9. COPY OF THE MAP OF THE PROVINCE OFGELDERLAND BY JACOB VAN DEVENTER, 1556.

Size of the original: 92.2 � 78.3 cm. Photograph courtesy ofthe Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel (Kartenslg. K 2,3).

on the living room walls of private houses. Clearly, theemotional effect of a modern wall map in the sixteenthcentury was considerable—and it continued to be so un-til the nineteenth century.

Regional maps, when pieced together, could providecoverage of an extensive area. This joining of survey mapswas proposed and urged by Münster as early as 1528 andwas ultimately carried out in almost every Europeancountry.55 It is possible that Van Deventer produced aprinted, simplified map of the Seventeen Provinces basedon his surveys.56 A small map from the period 1560–65,titled La vera descrittione della Gallia Belgice and as-cribed to the Italian Paolo Forlani, must have been takendirectly from a model of Van Deventer’s.57

Van Deventer’s province maps laid a firm foundation forfuture cartography with their mathematically correct rep-resentation of the complex land-water distribution in theNorthern Provinces. In addition to printed maps, Van De-venter also produced many manuscript maps. Aside fromhis town maps, almost nothing remains of this manuscriptmaterial. Only one handwritten map, of Het Bildt in Fries-land from 1545, can currently be attributed to him.58

Maps of the Southern Provinces by Jacques Surhon and Jean Surhon

No such maps as the multisheet maps of the NorthernProvinces seem to have been printed of the provinces in thesouthern part of the Spanish Netherlands in this early pe-riod. However, topographical surveys of limited extentwere undertaken in the provinces of Hainaut, Artois, Pi-cardy, Luxembourg, Namur, and Vermandois. All theseprovinces are shown on single-sheet maps at scales of be-tween 1:300,000 and 1:400,000 that were drawn byJacques Surhon and his son Jean in the period from about1548 to 1570.59 Jacques Surhon, born at Mons, was agoldsmith and a cartographer whose surveys in Luxem-bourg, Artois, and Hainaut are mentioned in the em-peror’s records.60 Jean Surhon is known from his map ofVermandois mentioned in the Plantijn account books of1558 and the following years and from his maps of Na-mur and Picardy in the 1579 edition of Abraham Or-telius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum.61 Denucé believes theSurhons were of the same rank and importance in the sur-vey and mapping of the Southern Provinces as Jacob vanDeventer was with regard to the Northern Provinces,62 butthere is little evidence to support this opinion. This is notsimply because the Surhons lacked Van Deventer’s title ofgéographe royal, but because records do not provide evi-dence of comprehensive surveys of the Southern Provinces.The only references we possess concern surveys in Luxem-bourg and payments for the maps of Hainaut and Artois.

For the map of Hainaut (fig. 43.10), Jacques Surhon re-ceived 350 Carolus guilders in 1548 and another 400


livres in 1549. This map was drawn in three copies: onefor the king, one for the queen, and one for the governorof Hainaut.63 Surhon was forbidden to show his work toanyone else, and the map did not appear in print. Morethan twenty years later, the restriction was no longervalid, and the map was published by Ortelius in 1572.For security reasons, the secret council of Brussels or-dered the destruction of the copperplate engraved byFrans Hogenberg. Ortelius therefore made use of a newcopperplate of Hainaut for publication in his Theatrumof 1579.64 In the same edition of the Theatrum, four moremaps of the Surhons were published (appendix 43.1).65

No impressions of these maps dated before 1579 havebeen preserved.

Jacques Surhon’s map of Luxembourg also appeared forthe first time in the Theatrum of 1579.66 This was not alarge-scale map, and one may doubt whether Surhon evermade a large-scale map of the area. Although the em-peror’s decree of 1551 (the only known record of the map-ping) ordered local authorities in Luxembourg to assist

55. Sebastian Münster, Erklerung des newen Instruments der Su° nnennach allen seinen Scheyben und Circkeln: Item eyn Vermanung Seba-stiani Münnster an alle Liebhaber der Künstenn im Hilff zu thun zuwarer unnd rechter Beschreybung Teütscher Nation (Oppenheim: IacobKobel, 1528).

56. See Van der Heijden, Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 1:39–66,and Koeman and Visser, De stadsplattegronden van Jacob van Deven-ter, introductions to the different parts.

57. Van der Heijden, in Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 44 – 47, pro-vides a summary of the copies of this map that have survived; see alsoDavid Woodward, The Maps and Prints of Paolo Forlani: A DescriptiveBibliography (Chicago: Newberry Library, 1990).

58. This map is located in The Hague, Nationaal Archief (VTH3044). See J. G. Avis, “Het auteurschap van de 16de-eeuwsche kaartenvan het Friesche Bilt,” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 49 (1934): 403–15; Van ’t Hoff, De kaarten van de Nederlandsche provinciën; and Koe-man, Gewestkaarten van de Nederlanden, 11–12.

59. For a biographical sketch of Jean Surhon, see Karrow, Mapmak-ers of the Sixteenth Century, 517–19.

60. See Peter H. Meurer, Fontes cartographici Orteliani: Das “The-atrum orbis terrarum” von Abraham Ortelius und seine Kartenquellen(Weinheim: VCH, Acta Humaniora, 1991), 250–51, and Jean Denucé,“Jean & Jacques Surhon, cartographes Montois, d’après les archivesPlantiniennes,” Annales du Cercle Archéologique du Mons 42 (1914):259–79.

61. See Meurer, Fontes cartographici Orteliani, 251–52 and fig. 70.62. Jean Denucé, Oud-Nederlandsche kaartmakers in betrekking met

Plantijn, 2 vols. (Antwerp: De Nederlandsche Boekhandel, 1912–13;reprinted Amsterdam: Meridian, 1964), 1:39.

63. Denucé, Kaartmakers, 1:35.64. Peter H. Meurer, “De verboden eerste uitgave van de

Henegouwen-kaart door Jacques de Surhon uit het jaar 1572,” Caert-Thresoor 13 (1994): 81–86.

65. Denucé, Kaartmakers, 1:32–33; privileges for the maps of Na-mur and Picardy had been granted more than twenty years earlier.

66. Van den Broecke, Ortelius Atlas Maps, 102. See also Emile vander Vekene, Les cartes géographiques du Duché de Luxembourg éditéesau XVIe, XVIIe, et XVIIIe siècles: Catalogue descriptif et illustré, 2d ed.(Luxembourg: Krippler-Muller, 1980), 6 –13 (figs. 1.02.A–1.02.d).

Surhon in his survey work, the amount of Surhon’s remu-neration was only 28 livres for five days to complete themap of Luxembourg,67 which does not sound like pay-ment for a map of great detail. Another payment, 36 livresfor the fair drawing of a map of Artois in 1551, is also nota convincing amount for a detailed topographical surveyof that province.68 The opinion that the Surhons had notaccomplished large-scale mapping is further strengthenedby the lack of entries in Plantijn’s account books. OnlyJean Surhon’s map of Vermandois (1558), of which severalhundred impressions were sold, is listed. Indeed, it was thefirst map printed on Plantijn’s press.69

Ortelius used the map of Vermandois for the compos-ite map in the first edition of the Theatrum (1570),70 butmaps by the Surhons were not only found in Ortelius’s at-lases. They were also copied in Gerard de Jode’s Specu-lum orbis terrarum of 1593, Lodovico Guicciardini’s De-scrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi of 1581, and MauriceBouguereau’s Le theatre francoys of 1594. About 1595,Baptista van Doetecum, son of Joannes van Doetecum ofAntwerp (later Deventer), who lived in Haarlem, en-


graved two maps by the Surhons: Artesiae descriptio Jo-hanne Surhonio Montensi auctore Baptista Doetecomiussculpsit and Nobilis Hannoniae Comitatus descriptioauctore Jacobo Surhonio Montano Baptista Doetecomiussculpsit.71

Other Maps of the Southern Provinces

There is still some doubt as to whether Van Deventer sur-veyed the province of Flanders. Kirmse has argued thatGerardus Mercator’s map of Flanders from 1540(fig. 43.11) was based on a Van Deventer survey becausethe accuracy of the locations of the towns and villages sug-gests triangulation.72 Further, the scale of the map, ap-proximately 1:172,000, accords with those of the otherprovincial maps by Van Deventer; the representation ofchurches, cloisters, and abbeys is identical to that in VanDeventer’s maps; and several circular symbols also indi-cate that one of these buildings served as a sight. Finally,other arguments that support Van Deventer’s authorshipare the similarity in the overlapping portions of the mapsof Brabant, Zeeland, and Flanders as well as the hand-writing on the maps.73 It is possible that Mercator and VanDeventer worked together on the mapping of Flanders inthe years before 1540. The map is assumed to have beenprinted by Mercator, because it does not carry the name

fig. 43.10. PROVINCIAL MAP OF VERMANDOIS BYJACQUES SURHON, 1558.Size of the original: 52.5 � 38 cm. Photograph copyright RoyalLibrary of Belgium, Brussels (Classmark II-22.736, Blad, 12).

67. Denucé, Kaartmakers, 1:36.68. Denucé, Kaartmakers, 1:38.69. Denucé, Kaartmakers, 1:28.70. Van den Broecke, Ortelius Atlas Maps, 85–86.71. Copies are in Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek. See The New Holl-

stein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450–1700, vols. 7–10, The Van Doetecum Family, 4 pts., comp. Henk Nalis,ed. Ger Luijten and Christiaan Schuckman (Rotterdam: Sound & Vi-sion Interactive Rotterdam, 1998), pt. 4, 236 –37. See also MCN, 1:27,and Dirk de Vries, “Eerste ‘staten’ van B. van Doetecum’s Artesia enHannonia,” Caert-Thresoor 4 (1985): 45.

72. Rolf Kirmse, “Die Große Flandernkarte Gerhard Mercators(1540)—Ein Politicum?” Duisburger Forschungen 1 (1957): 1– 44.Only an incomplete copy of this map is known. This copy was pur-chased in 1877 by the city of Antwerp from the estate of the canon C. B.de Ridder of Mechelen and has since been preserved in the MuseumPlantin-Moretus in Antwerp. The section between Bruges and Heist ismissing from the map. The text of the scroll directly underneath—theaddress to the reader—has not been preserved either, which makes de-termination of the origin of the map difficult. For a facsimile of the map,see Koeman, Gewestkaarten van de Nederlanden, Bijlage 1 (1–9). Forhis reproduction, Koeman used the facsimile by Jean van Raemdonck,De groote kaart van Vlaanderen vervaardigd in 1540 door GeeraardMercator / La grande carte de Flandre dressée en 1540 par Gérard Mer-cator (Antwerp: Wed. De Backer, 1882). See also Alfred van der Gucht,“De kaart van Vlaanderen,” in Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus, ed.Marcel Watelet (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1994): 284 –95. Further-more, with respect to toponyms, Mercator’s map agrees in large mea-sure with current use of Dutch and French names. See L. N. J. Camer-lynck, “De taalgrens op Mercators kaart van Vlaanderen (1540),”Caert-Thresoor 13 (1994): 23–26.

73. See also Koeman, Gewestkaarten van de Nederlanden, 22–25.

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and address of any other publisher or printer; however,several sales addresses are recorded.74 Furthermore, thereis a shield directly underneath with the name of the en-graver: “Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus faciebat.”

Kirmse has also demonstrated that Mercator’s map ofFlanders is not a copy of Pieter van der Beke’s map ofFlanders, a woodcut printed by Pieter de Keysere atGhent in 1538. Van der Beke’s map is less accurate andhas French place-names, while on Mercator’s map mostof the place-names are Flemish. From the viewpoint oftoponymic policy, the map has been labeled by Kirmse “apoliticum.”75 There is a credible reason for the produc-tion of a second map of Flanders after an interval of onlytwo years. In 1539, the town of Ghent had revoltedagainst Mary of Hungary, its governor, and consequentlyagainst its emperor, Charles V of Spain. The style of theVan der Beke map reflected Flanders’ spirit of indepen-dence. The heraldic shields of the counts of Flanders in along genealogical table with four bears in the corners rep-resenting the four oldest families were interwoven withtopography in a sexually provocative manner.76 Merca-tor, however, drew a map that omitted these provocativeelements to appease the emperor, who, with the obviousintention of punishing the disobedient town, had an-nounced his imminent arrival. To please this powerful pa-tron, Mercator also signed his map thus: “Dedicated toCharles V most Holy Roman Emperor by the most de-voted Gerardus Mercator of Rupelmonde.” Until some-time in 1570, Mercator’s map is reported to have beencopied primarily by Italian publishers.77 From that timeon, copies of the map also appeared in Ortelius’s The-atrum orbis terrarum.78

independent traditions of dutch regional surveying and mapping

The period from 1600 to 1670 was characterized bychaotic topographic mapping resulting from the politicalstructure of the Low Countries as a confederation of in-dependent states. Surveying and mapping fell underprovincial and not federal authority. In addition, withinthe same provinces the waterschappen had independentjurisdiction over matters concerning water and dike man-agement, including surveying and mapping of the terri-tory.79 For this sort of management, large-scale topo-graphical maps were indispensable. In most instances, theprivate initiative of scholars, not necessarily land survey-ors, lay at the base of provincial and local mapmaking inthe seventeenth century. Therefore, the accuracy of themaps varies according to the qualities of the surveys. Un-fortunately, the surveying methods used for these regionalmaps are seldom revealed to us, and in some instances wedo not know if a survey was carried out or if the regionalmap was composed from existing base maps.


Waterschap Maps (1572–ca. 1650)

The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated ar-eas of Europe, and 27 percent of it is situated below sealevel. More than half of the land would be under water ifthere were no dunes or dikes to protect it against flood-ing from the sea or from the larger rivers, which togetherform a gigantic delta (fig. 43.12). In the past, the areas be-low sea level belonged to the sea or to lakes, but they wereeventually drained by pumping out the water and con-structing dikes high enough to prevent flooding. Drainageand land reclamation has taken place since the twelfthcentury and has developed into a most disciplined tech-

N O R T H S E A

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Meuse

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Areas flooded by the sea if there were no dikes or dunes

Areas flooded by the rivers if there were no dikes

Dunes

fig. 43.12. THE NETHERLANDS WITHOUT DIKES ANDDUNES.

74. “In Antwerp in the Red Castle. In Ghent in front of the holyPharahildis. In Louvain in the Golden Sun.”

75. Kirmse, “Die Große Flandernkarte Gerhard Mercators (1540)—Ein Politicum?” The only copy of the Van der Beke map known is inNuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (La 281-284). An illustra-tion of the map can be found in Van der Gucht, “De kaart van Vlaan-deren,” 286 –87.

76. J. B. Harley and K. Zandvliet, “Art, Science, and Power inSixteenth-Century Dutch Cartography,” Cartographica 29, no. 2(1992): 10–19.

77. Marcel Destombes, “La grande carte de Flandre de Mercator etses imitations jusqu’à Ortelius (1540–1570),” Annalen van de Oud-heidkundige Kring van het Land van Waas 75 (1972): 5–18, and Koe-man, Gewestkaarten van de Nederlanden, 21.

78. Van den Broecke, Ortelius Atlas Maps, 119–21.79. The waterschappen are local jurisdictions responsible for water

management. Most local water problems are limited to a geographicalunit called a polder. A polder is a piece of low-lying land surrounded bydikes in which the water levels are controlled using inlets and outlets.

nology.80 Given the expertise of the Dutch in water man-agement, it goes without saying that they had also be-come expert in the field of maritime cartography.

The Low Countries have struggled against the water forcenturies, and the struggle continues to this day. Not onlyis there a danger of flooding from storm tides in the NorthSea and high water levels in the larger rivers, but the diffi-culty of draining low-lying areas also presents problems.Geologically speaking, the Low Countries lie in an area ofsubsidence, and because of this—combined with a signifi-cant rise in sea level—the soil sinks about ten centimetersevery hundred years. Many dikes, canals, ditches, wind-mills, channels, and other hydraulic arrangements are nec-essary to keep the land habitable. The first waterschap-pen—relatively independent governing bodies that wereresponsible for dike maintenance, water management,and land and water routes—were thus already in exis-tence during the Middle Ages, located in the low-lyingwestern part of the Low Countries. Because water prob-lems in the eastern Low Countries are much less signifi-cant, it was not until about 1850 that waterschappen wereestablished there.

Beginning in the twelfth century, special administrativestructures were developed in response to a vigorously ris-ing sea level, increasing soil subsidence, and populationgrowth. Pioneer hamlets developed, under the leadershipof a dike reeve (dijkgraaf ) who was supported by coun-selors of the control board (heemraden), and these super-vised the maintenance of the still primitive dikes. In orderto achieve good water management, the various settle-ments had to work together. They organized themselvesinto diverse water management bodies, each with its ownterritory and taxing authority: polder boards and watercontrol boards (waterschappen, heemraadschappen, andhoogheemraadschappen, more or less in order of the sizeof the district). There was also a dike district (dijkgraaf-schap) upon which a number of polders and waterschap-pen might have depended. In general, the administra-tive areas of the heemraadschappen were smaller thanthose of the hoogheemraadschappen. Both concepts datefrom the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries and continueto be useful. Finally, most of the waterschappen consistedof a number of polder boards.81 The following threehoogheemraadschappen, together covering three quartersof the area of the modern province of South Holland, con-stituted the earliest administrative organizations in mat-ters of water management in the Low Countries: Rijnland(chartered in 1255), Delfland (1290), and Schieland(1296).

In the northern part of Holland, medieval geographicalconditions were different: by means of open inlets, salt wa-ter from the North Sea penetrated the country via theZuiderzee. By closing the inlets, step by step, and by build-ing dikes, northern Holland developed into a fertile coun-


tryside. The administration of water management was inthe hands of the Hoogheemraadschap de UitwaterendeSluizen van Kennemerland en West-Friesland, which gotits charter in 1319.82 After the inlets had become lakes,surrounding dikes were built, windmills erected, and thewater pumped out. When drained, the fertile clay landswere sold to wealthy citizens for agriculture.

In Noord-Holland, as the province is called today, over seventy lakes, some not larger than twenty hec-tares and some more than six thousand hectares, weredrained in the years between 1546 and 1650.83 Whendrained, the lakes became polders and obtained a gov-erning institution: a polder or waterschap authority.These seventeenth-century waterschappen obtained theprivilege of self-administration from the company thathad invested the capital for the drainage.

The larger waterschappen were administered by courtsor boards, which originated in premedieval boards of el-der men who maintained law. The board of a waterschaphad the power to impose taxes, the right of jurisdiction,and the authority to enlist workers in times of emergency.Traditionally, the chairman was the dijkgraaf; his coun-selors were the hoogheemraden (representatives of theproperty owners), and the members of the board were thehoofdingelanden (property owners). The autonomy inmatters of jurisdiction and financial administration wasmore or less forced on the sovereign (the count of Hol-land) because the larger part of his territory was at themercy of the dikes and the seashore and depended on the

80. See G. P. van de Ven, ed., Leefbaar laagland: Geschiedenis van dewaterbeheersing en landaanwinning in Nederland ([Utrecht]: Matrijs,1993); Johan van Veen, Dredge, Drain, Reclaim: The Art of a Nation,5th ed. (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1962); and R. H. A. Cools, Strijd om dengrond in het lage Nederland: Het proces van bedijking, inpoldering endroogmaking sinds de vroegste tijden (Rotterdam: Nijgh and van Dit-mar, 1948).

81. Marc Hameleers, “Repräsentativität und Funktionalität von hol-ländischen Polder-, Deichgenossenschafts- und Deichgrafschafts-Karten,” in 5. Kartographiehistorisches Colloquium Oldenburg 1990,22–24 March 1990: Vorträge und Berichte, ed. Wolfgange Scharfe andHans Harms (Berlin: Reimer, 1991), 59–70.

82. See Marc Hameleers, West-Friesland in oude kaarten(Wormerveer: Stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland, 1987).

83. In North Holland, the following major lakes were drained be-tween 1597 and 1635: 1597, Zijpe (6250 hectares); 1608, Wogmeer(690 hectares); 1610, Wieringerwaard (1800 hectares); 1612, Beemster(7100 hectares); 1622, Purmer (2760 hectares); 1626, Wormer(1620 hectares); 1630, Heerhugowaard (3500 hectares); and 1635,Schermer (4770 hectares). For a review of the (cartographic) develop-ment of de Kop van Noord-Holland in particular, see Dirk Blonk andJoanna Blonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus: Een kartobiblio-grafie van Holland (’t Goy-Houten: HES & De Graaf, 2000); HenkSchoorl, Zeshonderd jaar water en land: Bijdrage tot de historische geo- en hydrografie van de Kop van Noord-Holland in de periode1150–1750 (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1973); and J. Westenberg,Oude kaarten en de geschiedenis van de Kop van Noord-Holland (Am-sterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1961).


discharge of excess water. A poorly maintained dike in asmall polder could jeopardize an entire province. Neitherthe count of Holland nor the emperor possessed the tech-nical expertise necessary either to administrate the pol-ders or to replace a polder board. As a consequence, thewaterschappen were granted partial sovereignty.

By its autonomy, a waterschap could afford the surveyand the mapping of its territory. A cartographic disci-pline thus developed that was specific to the Low Coun-tries: waterschap cartography. This discipline includes the cartographic documents that were produced as polderboards, dike districts, water control boards, and districtwater control boards carried out their various tasks.84

The oldest waterschap maps date from the fifteenth cen-tury, and they are still being published today.

The waterschap archives are among the best-preservedarchives in the Low Countries, and probably only a fewmaps have been lost throughout many centuries. More-over, there are still many copperplates in the possessionof the waterschappen, a situation that certainly does notapply to the commercial publishers in the Low Countries.Waterschap archives thus yield a complete picture of thevariety of maps that were made at the behest of the wa-terschap administration and offer much more than justthe printed and generally richly illustrated simplifiedmaps that can be found in other map collections both do-mestically and abroad (see appendix 43.2 and fig 43.13).By far the largest portion of the water district maps are inmanuscript form.85

Administrators of waterschappen made extensive useof maps for a variety of reasons, including the construc-tion and maintenance of roads, channels, and dikes andland reclamation. Many maps—mostly large-scalemaps—were also produced for the purposes of land ac-counting. Hameleers differentiates among waterschapmaps produced for various purposes, including watermanagement, administration, settlement of judicial ques-tions, response to “requests” or applications for permis-sion, and the management of building projects.86

The impetus for making polder maps for purposes ofwater management did not always come from the water-schap administration, but also came from individuals,private local organizations, and public governmentalagencies. Polder maps are predominantly forms of func-tional cartography. All lines, colors, and symbols relate inone way or another to the maritime purpose of the map.From a historical-geographical point of view, poldermaps can be divided into four groups:

1. Maps of the old polders, which were characterized bya peat substratum and by the settlement of subsidingsoil and medieval land allotment. This kind of polderwas artificially drained and was at most one to oneand a half meters deep.

2. Maps produced for the purposes of damming anddraining natural lakes. Many lakes were drained, es-pecially in the first half of the seventeenth century, in-cluding the Beemster (1612) and the Schermer (1635).

3. Maps that were related to the reclamation of land fromthe sea. The building of dikes took place specifically inthe southwest and the north of the Low Countries.

4. Maps that were related to peat cutting in the north-ernmost areas of the Low Countries (fig. 43.14). It wasdue to peat harvesting—peat was used, among otherthings, for fuel—that much land was initially lost.Later, this land was reclaimed by draining most of thepeat lakes. The original, medieval allotments havecompletely disappeared in these meter-deep polders.87

Only a small portion of the waterschap maps are thewell-known and richly illustrated printed general mapsmade up of multiple sheets that could be mounted as largewall maps. A banner title often extended across the topsheets of the map, and the decorative margins representedthe coats of arms of the dike reeve and the dike board,among other things. Next to the administrative and judi-

fig. 43.13. PRINTED WATERSCHAP MAP OF HEER-HUGOWAARD BY CLAES JANSZ. VISSCHER, 1631.Size of the original: ca. 56 � 56 cm. Photograph courtesy ofthe Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam (120.23.18).

84. Hameleers, “Repräsentativität und Funktionalität,” 60.85. For a good selection of various types of waterschap maps, see

C. G. D de Wilt et al., Delflands kaarten belicht (Delft: Hoogheem-raadschap van Delfland; Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2000).

86. Hameleers, “Repräsentativität und Funktionalität,” 61.87. See Hameleers, “Repräsentativität und Funktionalität,” 63–64,

and De Vries, “Official Cartography,” 46 – 49.

cial function of these large maps, their primary purposewas to represent the territory and promote the name andfame of the waterschap administrators. The level of detaildid not always match the size and scale of the map; insome cases format, scale, and map content contradictedone another.88

The earliest mapping activities commissioned by a wa-terschap date from the fifteenth century. From about 1400onward, the waterschappen employed a land surveyor forboth property and engineering surveys and, in case of dis-putes, for drawing maps.89 Although the oldest knownoath of a land surveyor, administered by the board of theHoogheemraadschap Rijnland, is dated 1453,90 the dutiesof a land surveyor were recorded at an earlier date in a“corpus of law” (1405) of the town Brielle in the provinceof South Holland.91 First, mention is made of the units oflengths and the compulsory education of the surveyor inmathematics; next are given the rules and laws governingthe transfer of land and houses by sale and purchase. Inparticular, the rules for the measurement of property aregiven in great detail, but no mention is made of drawing aplan from the survey. Apart from waterschap archives,various records refer to surveys in the fifteenth century, butmaps are not mentioned.92 The drawing of plans and topo-graphical maps seems to have been rather exceptional inthe period before 1500.93

This changed about 1520–30, when textbooks andforeign examples of topographic mapping introduced theart of surveying to the Low Countries. In 1539, the best-known professional of his time, Jacob van Deventer, wasordered to survey and draw a map of the territory ofDelfland. Although six copies of this (most likely) manu-script map were ordered, no copy has been preserved.94

Thanks to the precise instruction of the commission, weknow what the map looked like: “First, Master Jacobnamed before shall make a map on a small scale of all the


polders within the waterschap and to plot all the windmills, dikes, and canals at their correct place with thenames of each polder and wind mill. . . . Further, he shallplot all the churches at their proper place on the small-scale map, according their dimensions on the large-scalemap.”95 This very important statement proves that de-tailed large-scale maps of villages with their churches didexist. Van Deventer probably compiled his small-scaletopographical map of Delfland from two sources: a geo-

fig. 43.14. MANUSCRIPT WATERSCHAP MAP OF PEATDIGGING IN THE OUDE POLDER VAN PIJNACKER ANDTHE OUDEWEGSCHE POLDER, 1691. On the right are ir-regular parcels of land resulting from peat digging. On theseparcels, the peat was to be dried and consequently could be

used as fuel.Size of the original: 40 � 153 cm. Archief Hoogheemraad-schap van Delfland (OAD inv. no. 722). Photograph courtesyof the Gemeentearchief, Delft.

88. In the cases of changes in administration, the coat of arms mightbe changed, but not the map content. See Hameleers, “Repräsentativitätund Funktionalität,” 66.

89. On earlier (ca. 1000–1300) large-scale drainage projects (butwithout maps), see Henk Schoorl et al., Holland in de dertiende eeuw:Leven, wonen en werken in Holland aan het einde van de dertiendeeeuw (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1982).

90. Muller and Zandvliet, Admissies, 7.91. Jacobus Antonie Fruin and M. S. Pols, eds., Het rechtsboek van

Den Briel: Beschreven in vijf tractaten door Jan Matthijssen (TheHague: Nijhoff, 1880).

92. P. S. Teeling, Repertorium van oud-Nederlandse landmeters, 14e

tot 18e eeuw, 2 vols. (Apeldoorn: Dienst van het Kadaster en de Open-bare Registers, 1981); for an index to this work, see Peter van der Krogt,Index op het Repertorium van Oud-Nederlandse landmeters, 14e tot18e eeuw, van P. S. Teeling (Apeldoorn: Hoofddirectie van de Dienst vanhet Kadaster en de Openbare Registers, 1983). Mentioned are farm-lands surveyed near Gouda, 1432 (Teeling 1161); property on the islandof Putten, 1462 (Teeling 1180); dikes between Edam and Oosthuizen,1456 (Teeling 1124); and property boundaries near Rotterdam, 1482(Teeling 1153).

93. This is also confirmed by the chronological list of local maps andplans from the Low Countries before 1550 with its fifteen items compiledby Harvey (“Local and Regional Cartography,” 499–500). In this list,only one map, number 6, originated from the archives of a waterschap.

94. Lamberta J. Ruys, “De oude kaarten van het Hoogheemraad-schap Delfland,” Het Boek 23 (1935–36): 195–209.

95. Van ’t Hoff, Jacob van Deventer, 33. The documents related tothe map (Jacob van Deventer’s signed receipt included) are in theArchief van het Hoogheemraadschap Delfland at Delft.

metrical survey of a network of intersections of sights onchurch towers and a reduction of large-scale plans, avail-able from the map collection in the archives of Delfland.

In 1548, Van Deventer was paid 100 pounds for his sixcopies. This sum was collected from the thirteen polderdistricts of Delfland. Presumably this map was used as awall map until 1606, when it was replaced by a wall mapby Matthijs Jansz. de Been van Wena (also known asMathijs Janssoon van Delff) painted in oil on panel, whichhas been preserved.96 This painted map was soon followedby the first printed map of Delfland.

The earliest existing printed waterschap map is a smallengraved map of the polder Zijpe in North Holland,which was the first large polder (66 square kilometers) re-claimed from the North Sea (see appendix 43.2).97 TheZijpe was an inlet before its closure from the North Sea in1572. The modest engraved map of about 1572, with lotsmarked by the letters a through k, was presumably in-tended for use in dividing the property and in stimulatingthe sale of lots in the newly acquired fertile land. More os-tentatious printed wall maps of polders and waterschap-pen appeared after 1611, with decorative coats of arms ofthe members of the court of the waterschap on top.98

In a short period of time, between 1611 and 1615,maps of the three largest hoogheemraadschappen of Hol-land—Rijnland, Delfland, and Schieland—appeared inprint.99 They are all multisheet wall maps at a large scale.This set of waterschap maps, surveyed and engraved byFloris Balthasarsz.100 and his sons, marks the beginningof a great period of polder cartography in the Low Coun-tries. The measurements taken by Floris Balthasarsz. werenot based on an integrated triangulation of the whole ter-ritory; he produced the wall maps by combining the mapsof local communities (Ambachten), which he measuredand mapped individually.101 Because the mathematicalfoundation of Floris Baltharsarsz.’s maps was unrigorous,Rijnland commissioned Jan Jansz. Dou less than thirtyyears later to measure and map the area anew.102

Ornamental lettering dominates Floris Balthasarsz.’smaps. The lettering was both decorative and functional;the size of the lettering distinguished the administrativestatus of the polders. Polder names and names of dikes,canals, and sluices were essential to those who were incharge of water management and the upkeep of the dikes.A subdivision of the land into parcels, as found on cadas-tral plans, was not required for the waterschap maps andwas never introduced. The waterschap map was an ad-ministrative map requiring administrative codes, not acadastral map with its characteristic numbering. Dikes,canals, and subdivisions of polders were all named; wind-mills for pumping and locks for discharging water at lowtide were also depicted. Within each waterschap territory,several units with a specific water level existed. These unitswere shown and named on the map. Figures indicating the


water level, however, were never shown on seventeenth-century printed maps, but were kept as written records.

Gradually every large waterschap and polder in the LowCountries was mapped and a printed map produced, gen-erally at a large scale, about 1:30,000. At the beginning ofthe eighteenth century, the coverage was complete butlacked uniformity.103 The waterschap authorities did nothave any problem financing the survey and mapping oftheir territory: just a few cents’ extra land taxation per

96. C. Postma, De kaart van het Hoogheemraadschap van Delflandvan 1606 geschilderd door de landmeter Mathijs de Been van Wena(Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1978), with facsimile. See also De Wiltet al., Delflands kaarten belicht, 24 –25. The map measures 124 by124 centimeters.

97. Caert van het Hontbos ende Zijplant met huare omleggende lan-den gedaen bij Adrianus Anthonij . . . , 1:43,000. Engraved by P. J.Nagel, this map is dated 1572. Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, port. 31no. 69; Haarlem, Rijksarchief in Noord-Holland, nr. 1363 (incom-plete). A facsimile edition was published by the HoogheemraadschapNoordhollands Noorderkwartier (Alkmaar, 1971). There is a paintedmanuscript map (ca. 1550) by Jan van Scorel of the diking-in of theZijpe and the area to the north as far as Texel. This map is located inThe Hague, Nationaal Archief (VTH 2486; 80 � 240 cm) and has beenreproduced in part in Henk Schoorl, Ballade van Texel: Texel en om-geving in het midden van de zestiende eeuw: Toelichting bij de repro-duktie van een kaartfragment (Den Burg: Het Open Boek, 1976).

98. This is described well by Walter W. Ristow in his article “DutchPolder Maps,” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 31 (1974):136 – 49. See also Henk Schoorl, Kust en kaart: Artikelen over hetkaartbeeld van het Noordhollandse kustgebied (Schoorl: Pirola, 1990).

99. On the printed maps of Delfland and Schieland by FlorisBalthasarsz., see Marc Hameleers, “De kaarten van Delfland enSchieland uit 1611 door Floris Balthasars,” Antiek 20, no. 8 (1986):435– 43. Facsimiles of the printed maps of the three district water con-trol boards, with commentary, are found in G. ’t Hart et al., Kaartenvan Rijnland, Delfland en Schieland 1611–1615 (Alphen aan den Rijn:Canaletto, 1972). There is likewise a facsimile of the original manu-script map of Rijnland in K. Zandvliet, ed., Prins Maurits’ kaart vanRijnland en omliggend gebied door Floris Balthasar en zijn zoonBalthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode in 1614 getekend (Alphen aan denRijn: Canaletto, 1989). This work discusses the history of the map’s de-velopment in detail. It also contains a bibliography of the maps andprints produced by Floris Balthasarsz. and his sons.

100. A summary of the activities of Floris Balthasarsz. and BalthasarFlorisz. van Berckenrode is in Paul van den Brink, “De kaart van Rijn-land door Floris Balthasar van Berckenrode,” while full biographies ofFloris Balthasarsz. and his sons can be found in K. Zandvliet, “Kar-tografie, Prins Maurits en de Van Berckenrodes,” both in Prins Maurits’kaart van Rijnland en omliggend gebied door Floris Balthasar en zijnzoon Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode in 1614 getekend, ed.K. Zandvliet (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1989), 1–16, esp. 3, and17–50, esp. 27–37.

101. See De Vries, “Official Cartography,” 44; Pouls, De landmeter,228; MCN, 5:296 –98. The original plots that Van Berckenrode madeof the communities in Rijnland have been bound together into an atlas.This atlas is located in the Oud Archief van Rijnland, Leiden.

102. The map, prepared by Dou in cooperation with Steven vanBroekhuysen, appeared in 1647 on twelve sheets and at a scale of ca.1:30,000. A second and third edition were published in 1687 and 1746.

103. For index sheets, see Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografischekaarten van Nederland vóór 1750, 29–32.

acre was sufficient to pay for it. Accordingly, the authori-ties generously distributed impressions of the multisheetpolder or waterschap map at no cost. Local and state au-thorities received painted copies, and a few copies wereprinted on silk. Members of the board, as well as dikereeves and secretaries of neighboring polders, received freeimpressions. A detailed account of the printing, coloring,and binding of these maps, as well as of the plate revisions,is available from the waterschap archives.104 Apart fromoffering the free impressions, the printer was allowed bycontract to sell and advertise the map for a fixed price. Thenumber of impressions printed of the map of Rijnland(1647) was only one hundred. A century later, six hundredimpressions were printed for the third edition from the re-vised plates. These are maximum figures, because Rijn-land was the most prominent among the waterschappen.

Reprints of waterschap maps were often made from thesame plate, but the revisions were generally insignificant.Revisions of the plates with the coats of arms were mostfrequently made, in response to the death or reelection of hoogheemraden. Thanks to this type of genealogicaldata, the date of second, third, or fourth editions may be determined. Thanks also to the completeness of thearchives, it has been possible to reconstruct the printinghistory of waterschap maps.105 In addition, most of thelarger waterschap maps have now been reprinted in fac-simile, accompanied by a historical note.106

Printed Province Maps (1575–ca. 1700)

The desire for self-representation expressed by provincesand local districts at the beginning of the sixteenth cen-tury resulted in a trend toward regional mapping in al-most all the countries of Europe. Printed manuals formeasuring large areas began to appear. Van Deventer andthe Surhons had laid the foundation for regional mappingin the Low Countries. These maps formed the prototypesfor maps that appeared in commercial atlases.

Beginning in the last quarter of the sixteenth centuryand lasting until 1700, individual maps appeared of al-most every province in the northern Low Countries, theprovince of Flanders, and the duchy of Luxembourg (ap-pendix 43.3).107 These maps replaced the cartographicwork that had become antiquated, especially that of VanDeventer. The mapping of each of the provinces was un-dertaken at different times and as a result of the initiativeand interests of widely different groups. For example, themap of North Holland from 1575, by Joost Jansz. Bil-hamer, was commissioned by the duke of Alba, the Span-ish commander in chief at the time, for military purposes.Another example is the map of Zeeland from 1654/55,by Zacharias Roman and Nicolaas I Visscher, commis-sioned by the council of representatives for the provinceof Zeeland. Finally, the map of Groningen, Friesland,


Drenthe, and Overijssel from 1606, by Baptista vanDoetecum, was dedicated to the mayors of the city of De-venter.

The secession of the northern Low Countries in 1579provided a fertile seedbed for the flourishing of regionalcartography, and around this time multisheet maps, mostnotably of the Northern Provinces, first made their ap-pearance. Maps of Groningen and Friesland, by the monkSibrandus Leo, appear in Ortelius’s Theatrum.108 Copies,enhanced with roads, appear in the Itinerarium Belgicum,an atlas of the Low Countries from 1587, likely by FransHogenberg in Keulen. The clergyman, amateur astrono-mer, and cartographer David Fabricius conducted com-pletely new mapping work in the Northern Provinces,resting, in part, on a geometric foundation. In 1589, hehad a map of East Friesland printed at a scale of 1:185,000.109 A second, revised edition of this map followedin 1592, known only from a reprint made in 1613.Around 1600, Joannes van Doetecum Jr. engraved an ex-panded version on a smaller scale to include the provinceof Groningen.110 The historian, geographer, and scholarUbbo Emmius is also closely identified with the cartogra-phy of East Friesland.111 He made a geometrically reliable

104. For details from account books on fees and production time forengraving and coloring, see C. Postma, Kaart van Delfland 1712(Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1977).

105. A comprehensive bibliography of printed polder maps from1575 to the present is currently being prepared for publication by MarcHameleers and Marco van Egmond.

106. Reprints of the following maps were published by Canaletto,Alphen aan den Rijn (see the list of waterschap maps in appendix 43.2):Delfland 1611, Schieland 1611, Rijnland 1615, Rijnland 1647, De Lan-den van Woerden 1670/71, Kennemerland en West-Friesland 1680, andDelfland 1712.

107. Almost all multisheet province maps from this period can alsobe found in one of the three giant atlases in London (“Klencke Atlas”),Rostock, and Berlin (“Atlas des Großen Kurfürsten”). See the discussionof these atlases on p. 1356. Illustrations and descriptions of many ofthese province maps can be found in H. A. M. van der Heijden, Kaarten kunst van de Zeventien Provinciën der Nederlanden: Met een be-knopte geschiedenis van de Nederlandse cartografie in de 16de en 17de

eeuw (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2001).108. See J. J. Vredenberg-Alink, De kaarten van Groningerland: De

ontwikkeling van het kaartbeeld van de tegenwoordige provincieGroningen met een lijst van gedrukte kaarten vervaardigd tussen 1545en 1864 (Uithuizen: Bakker’s Drukkerij, 1974), no. II B 3, and Meurer,Fontes cartographici Orteliani, 184.

109. See Arend W. Lang, Die “Nie und warhafftige Beschrivinge desOstfrieslandes” des David Fabricius von 1589: Eine wiederentdeckteKarte (Juist: Die Bake, 1963). From the only known copy in Emden,Ostfriesische Landesmuseum; see Meurer, Fontes cartographici Or-teliani, 141– 42.

110. See Vredenberg-Alink, De kaarten van Groningerland, no. I B31; MCN, 1:31–32; and Nalis, Van Doetecum Family, pt. 4, no. 993,with illustration.

111. On Ubbo Emmius, see W. J. Kuppers, ed., Ubbo Emmius: EenOostfries geleerde in Groningen � Ubbo Emmius: Ein OstfriesischerGelehrter in Groningen (Groningen-Emden: REGIO Projekt, 1994).

map of this area (at a scale of 1:200,000), which was en-graved by Otto Friedman in 1595 but published only in alimited edition in 1599.112 The map was included in Em-mius’s chronicle Rerum Frisicarum historia in 1616, in theform of a smaller copy engraved by Nicolaas van Geel-kercken in Leiden. Adding productively to the work ofEmmius as well as the older wall map by Jacob van De-venter, that same year Barthold Wicheringe completed ageneral map of the province of Groningen, which was pub-lished by Willem Jansz. Blaeu.113 Around 1629, JodocusHondius Jr. produced a copy of Wicheringe’s map. Theplate eventually came into the possession of Blaeu, whomade a new version of it in 1630 and 1635.

In 1599, the province of Utrecht got its own generalmap, compiled by minister and administrator CornelisAnthonisz. Hornhovius. He presumably carried out verylittle survey work for this project, making use of a num-ber of base maps that have not survived.114 AlthoughHornhovius’s map was no cartographic tour de force,copies were made in the seventeenth century by Pieter vanden Keere, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, and Nicolaas I Visscher.Ultimately, the new map of Utrecht by geographerBernard de Roij replaced that of Hornhovius in 1696.115

The historiography of the cartography of Limburg iscomplicated by its chaotic administrative organization be-fore 1815. Only portions of the present territory figure pri-marily in older printed general maps. A map of southernLimburg dating from 1603 by Aegidius Martini is said tohave been produced in support of the campaign of theSpanish commander in chief, Ambrogio Spinola.116 Theoriginal has been lost, although a reduction at a scale of1:180,000 appeared for the first time in the English-language edition of Ortelius’s Theatrum of 1606. Afterthat year, the map appeared in atlases by Pieter van denKeere, Claes Jansz. Visscher, and Willem Jansz. Blaeu,among others.

The entire province of Limburg was also included inthe wall map Ducatus Brabantiae nova delineatio (dis-cussed later), published in 1656 by Nicolaas I Visscher—although the map is attributed to his father, Claes Jansz.Visscher, who died in 1652.117 The charter indicates thatthe compiler was Middelburg printer and booksellerZacharias Roman, who based parts of it on the wall mapof Zeeland that Visscher and Roman had published in1654.

A general map of the province of Friesland appearedaround 1618, at a scale comparable to that of Wicheringe’smap of Groningen. This map, by Nicolaas van Geel-kercken, represents the first improvement on Jacob vanDeventer’s rendering of the province.118 It continued to bereprinted well into the seventeenth century. In 1622,shortly after the publication of Van Geelkercken’s generalmap, another map of Friesland came onto the market—this one produced by Adriaan Metius and Gerard


Freitag.119 The engraving, by Pieter Feddes van Harlin-gen, was not particularly well done. More professionallyengraved copies were published after 1629 by JodocusHondius Jr. and Willem Jansz. Blaeu.

A new phase in the mapping of Friesland was usheredin with the arrival of thirty newly surveyed grietenijenmaps by Bernardus Schotanus à Sterringa in 1664 (a“grietenij” was a typical Frisian form of district adminis-tration that enjoyed significant independence).120 Themaps were included in the Beschrijvinge van de Heerlijk-heydt van Friesland, by Bernardus’s father, ChristiaanSchotanus à Sterringa, a professor from Franeker. Be-tween 1682 and 1694, Schotanus à Sterringa mapped allthe grietenijen anew and published the results in hisFriesche atlas.121

112. See Arend W. Lang, Die Erstausgabe der Ostfriesland-Karte desUbbo Emmius (1595): Erläuterungen zur Lichtdruckausgabe (Juist: DieBake, 1962), describing the second state, and Reiner Sonntag, “ZurOstfriesland-Karte des Ubbo Emmius und ihrer Zustandsfolge—Be-kanntes und neue Erkentnisse,” in Ubbo Emmius, 130– 45. On the reported surveying done for the map and its mathematical reliability, see Heinrich Schumacher, “Ubbo Emmius: Trigonometer, Topographund Kartograph—Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung neuer For-schungsergebnisse,” in Ubbo Emmius, 146 –65, and MCN, 7:416 –24and facsimile 48.

113. See Vredenberg-Alink, De kaarten van Groningerland, no. IV A1–11, and MCN, 4:279–87 and facsimile 18.

114. See the bibliographical note to the facsimile edition: C. Koe-man and N. S. L. Meiners, Kaart van de provincie Utrecht door Cor-nelius Anthonisz. Hornhovius, 1599: Tweede uitgave door Clement de Jonghe, derde kwart 17e eeuw (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto-reproducties, 1974).

115. See the bibliographical note to the facsimile edition: A. H. Sij-mons, Nieuwe kaart van den Lande van Utrecht (Alphen aan den Rijn:Canaletto, 1973).

116. See Koeman, Geschiedenis, 103.117. See the bibliographical note to the facsimile edition: W. A. van

Ham and L. Danckaert, De wandkaart van het hertogdom Brabant uit-gegeven door Nicolaas Visscher en Zacharias Roman (1656) (Alphenaan den Rijn: Canaletto/Repro-Holland; Leuven: Universitaire Pers,1997). Reprints of the map from 1661 and 1703 have been preserved.

118. See MCN, 6:288–89 and facsimile 55 (second state, 1642), andKoeman, Geschiedenis, 97. On Nicolaas van Geelkercken, see also theCatalogus van de tentoonstelling Nicolaes van Geelkercken (Zutphen,1972) and Peter H. Meurer, “Der Kartograph Nicolaes van Geel-kercken,” Heimatkalender des Kreises Heinsberg, 2001, 79–97, esp. 86.

119. See Koeman, Geschiedenis, 98.120. At the initiative of Christiaan Schotanus à Sterringa, these grie-

tenijen were all surveyed between 1658 and 1662, but the GedeputeerdeStaten were not satisfied with the maps that were based on these surveys.Bernardus was subsequently commissioned to redo the maps.

121. See the bibliographical note to the facsimile edition: J. J. Kalmaand C. Koeman, Uitbeelding der Heerlijkheit Friesland . . . door d. Bern.Schotanus à Sterringa . . . (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,1979); the introduction to the facsimile edition: Dirk de Vries, Nieuwecaert van Friesland (1739): Heruitgave van de wandkaart van Bernar-dus Schotanus à Sterringa (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1983); andJohannes Keuning, “Bernardus Schotanus à Sterringa: Zijn leven en kar-tografisch oeuvre,” De vrije Fries 42 (1955): 37–87.

The wall map of the province of Holland by BalthasarFlorisz. van Berckenrode, published in 1621 by WillemJansz. Blaeu, represents a high point in regional cartog-raphy.122 It is based on the waterschap maps of Rijnland,Delfland, and Schieland, which Balthasar Florisz. vanBerckenrode, together with his father, Floris Balthasarsz.,and brother Cornelis produced between 1611 and 1615.The three waterschap maps already represented a largeportion of Holland, and it was worth the effort to pub-lish a combined wall map of all of Holland and WestFriesland. The project was carried out by BalthasarFlorisz. and his brother Frans Florisz. (their father Florishad since died). In the spring of 1620, Van Berckenrodeobtained a nine-year charter to assemble the map, andthat same year he delivered twelve impressions to thestates of Holland.123 Unfortunately, no copies of theseproofs have survived.

Due to financial difficulties, Van Berckenrode wasforced to sell the copperplates and the rights to the mapto Willem Jansz. Blaeu in 1621. Blaeu was not satisfiedwith certain portions of the map and commissioned VanBerckenrode to remap a large area in the north of Hol-land.124 The mapped image of the territories that fell out-side the boundaries of the district water control boardswas ultimately borrowed in large part from the maps byJoost Jansz. Bilhamer (portions of North Holland, SouthHolland, and Utrecht), Anthonius Adriaensz. Metius(Kop van Noord-Holland), and Lucas Jansz. Sinck(Beemster and Purmer).125 Blaeu’s edition of the map byVan Berckenrode has become world famous by its inclu-sion in three paintings by Jan Vermeer: Officer andLaughing Girl (ca. 1657), Young Woman in Blue (1662–64), and The Love Letter (ca. 1670).126

The map by Van Berckenrode and Blaeu served as amodel for the edition of the wall map of Holland and WestFriesland published by Henricus Hondius in 1629, like-wise drawn by Van Berckenrode.127 Visscher publishedamended reprints of the Van Berckenrode–Blaeu map in1637, 1651, and 1656 and between 1660 and 1682.128

The 1637 edition by Claes Jansz. Visscher served, in turn,as a model for the forty-sheet map of Holland by JacobAertsz. Colom dating from 1639.129 Around 1690, Nico-laas II Visscher created a new prototype, based on a com-pilation of regional maps: Hollandiæ comitatus, with theorientation to the north.130 This prototype defined themapped image of Holland throughout the eighteenthcentury.

In Brabant, there was a changing frontier during theEighty Years War. Only after 1648 was there a clear andpermanent boundary between its northern and southernparts. Nevertheless, Michael Florent van Langren pro-duced, even before that time, a map of Brabant in threeparts: Prima, Secunda, and Tertia pars Brabantiae.131 Themeasurements must have been taken during the period


1627–30. The result was a wall map in four sheets, whichappeared in 1635. Willem Jansz. Blaeu published an atlasmap from it that same year. Shortly before that time, Blaeuhad also published in his atlas a map of the Meierij van’s-Hertogenbosch (Quarta pars Brabantiae cujus caputSylvaducis), drawn by Willebrordus van der Burght.132

The maps of Brabant and the Meierij were the only gen-eral maps of North Brabant up to the end of the eighteenthcentury and were often copied in late seventeenth-centuryatlases. Mapmakers continued representing the old entity,the duchy of Brabant, for quite a long time.

For its general map, the province of Drenthe probablyhas coincidence to thank. As a province, it played no sig-nificant role in the governmental organization of the six-teenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition, the numberof its inhabitants—and the level of commercial activityassociated with it—was too small to justify the publica-tion of a general map. However, Professor Cornelis Pij-nacker traveled in the province from 1634 to 1636 in con-nection with some boundary litigation, which likely

122. For a summary of the history of this wall map, see Jan W. H.Werner, “The Van Berckenrode–Visscher Map of Holland: A WallmapRecently Acquired by Amsterdam University Library,” in Theatrum Or-bis Librorum: Liber Amicorum Presented to Nico Israel on the Occa-sion of his Seventieth Birthday, ed. Ton Croiset van Uchelen, Koert vander Horst, and Günter Schilder (Utrecht: HES, 1989), 105–23; MCN,5:295–332 and facsimiles 7.1–7.11 and 8.1–8.19; and Blonk andBlonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus, 36 – 48, and 221–28.

123. MCN, 5:300.124. MCN, 5:300–305. Two copies of the Blaeu version are known:

one mounted copy is located in the Westfries Museum, Hoorn, while anincomplete copy of the map in loose sheets—without text description—is in the collection of the Universiteitsbibliotheek, Leiden.

125. Blonk and Blonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus, 40– 41and 221–24.

126. De soldaat en het lachende meisje is located in New York (FrickCollection) and the Lezende vrouw in het blauw and De liefdesbrief inAmsterdam (Rijksmuseum). See MCN, 5:306 –7; James A. Welu, “Ver-meer: His Cartographic Sources,” Art Bulletin 57 (1975): 529– 47;idem, “Vermeer and Cartography,” 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., Boston Univer-sity, 1977); idem, “The Map in Vermeer’s Art of Painting,” ImagoMundi 30 (1978): 9–30; and plate 52 in this volume.

127. Blonk and Blonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus, 42– 43,and 233–37, and MCN, 5:307–13.

128. Blonk and Blonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus, 43– 48and 224 –26, and MCN, 5:313–23 and facsimiles 8.1–8.18.

129. Blonk and Blonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus, 276 –83,and A. J. Kölker, “Jacob Aertsz. Colom, Amsterdams uitgever,” in Ja-cob Aertsz. Colom’s kaart van Holland 1639: Reproductie van de eersteuitgave, ed. A. J. Kölker and A. H. Sijmons (Alphen aan den Rijn:Canaletto, 1979), 13–23. Later editions of this map followed in 1647,1661, 1681 (two), after 1721, and after 1726.

130. Blonk and Blonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus, 49–53and 342– 47.

131. See Koeman, Geschiedenis, 64 and 103.132. See S. J. Fockema Andreae and Bert van ’t Hoff, Geschiedenis

der kartografie van Nederland van den Romeinschen tijd tot het mid-den van de 19e eeuw (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1947), 45, andKoeman, Geschiedenis, 103.

induced him to draw a map of Drenthe (including theGroningse Westerwolde) in 1634.133 This map was pub-lished for the first time in 1636 by Johannes Janssonius.Copies were made by various publishers until well intothe eighteenth century.

Mercator’s map of Flanders (1540) had served as themodel for the province for many generations of map-makers. This model was replaced shortly before 1638,when a multisheet map of Flanders was published simul-taneously by Henricus Hondius in Amsterdam andAlexander Serhanders in Ghent.134 Willem Jansz. Blaeurelied greatly on it for his six-sheet wall map of Flandersin 1638.135 The copperplates of the wall map of Flandersmust have enjoyed various reprintings, because it ap-peared in numerous publishers’ catalogs by Blaeu’s sonJoan up until 1672, the year of the devastating fire inBlaeu’s workshop.

Gelderland is unique among the provinces of the LowCountries in that it is the only one for which ChristiaanSgrooten published a printed general map. The successorto this map, the general map of Gelderland by Nicolaasvan Geelkercken from 1638, has the same map image.136

He produced the map as part of the Historia Gelria, thehistorical and geographical description of Gelderland,which came into being under the direction of JohannIsaaksz. Pontanus in 1639. Van Geelkercken did exten-sive surveying for his map. In addition to a general map,this work also yielded maps of the four regions that makeup Gelderland. Copies of the general map appeared in theform of four-sheet wall maps by Nicolaas I Visscher, Cor-nelis Danckerts, Hugo Allard, and the Covens & Mortierfirm, successively.137

Michael Florent van Langren took up the mapping ofthe duchy of Luxembourg, in addition to his previouslymentioned mapping of Brabant. The resulting four-sheetmap was published in Brussels in 1644 and determinedthe cartographic image of Luxembourg for many years.138

In 1671 or 1672, there followed a reprinting in whichseveral decorative crests were added and a portion of themasthead disappeared. There were no alterations to thecontent of the map.

A four-sheet general map of the province of Overijsselappeared in 1650, in the context of boundary litigationbetween Drenthe, on one side, and Groningen and Over-ijssel, on the other.139 In 1639, the states of Overijsselgave the commission for new mapping to Nicolaas TenHave, vice-rector of the Latin School in Zwolle. Reduc-tions of the map at a scale of 1:200,000 appeared inmany contemporary atlases beginning in 1652. The De-venter publisher Jan de Lat published a reprinting as lateas 1743 with only a few, small changes.

Among the province maps by Jacob van Deventer, hismap of Zeeland is the one that was in use for the longestperiod of time. It was not until 1654 –55 that it was su-


perseded by the monumental wall map Zelandia comita-tus novissima tabula, drawn by Zacharias Roman andpublished by Nicolaas I Visscher in nine sheets.140 Itsscale of 1:40,000 can be considered quite large for thetime. Due to a lack of detailed triangulation, the water-ways of Zeeland were depicted too narrowly throughoutthe map. The map by Roman and Visscher was reprintedin 1656, 1680, and about 1730. There are also manycopies, including one made abroad in Le Rouge in 1748.With this last-mentioned map of Zeeland, every provincein the Republic of the Seven United Low Countries hadits own modern, nonmilitary general map, and the role ofJacob van Deventer had become a prominent one in thehistory of the cartography of the Low Countries.

Military Mapping of the Low Countries (to ca. 1648)

Soon after the union of the seventeen provinces underCharles V (in 1543), the mapping of the Low Countriesbegan with the production of strategic manuscript topo-graphical maps surveyed by geographers loyal to thecrown. These mapping projects of the Spanish govern-ment were ambitious, even at a European level. Reliablelarge- and medium-scale maps were available for virtuallyall regions and towns in the Low Countries.

Shortly afterward, the Seven United Provinces of theLow Countries began their long-term struggle for inde-pendence, which was accompanied by numerous military

133. See Huibert Antonie Poelman, “De kaart van Drente en Wes-terwolde door Corn. Pynacker d.a. 1634,” Nieuwe Drentsche Volks-almanak 47 (1929): 44.

134. See MCN, 5:357–63, with a reconstruction of the lost map ofHondius and of the map of Serhanders, only a few sheets of which havesurvived, located in the BNF (Ge D 15507) and in Ghent, Rijksarchief.Serhanders made use of Hondius’s atlas map sheets, adding his own ad-dress and commission.

135. The only known copy of this wall map is located in the collec-tion of the Zeeuwsch Genootschap voor Wetenschappen, Middelburg.See MCN, 5:355–67 and facsimiles 10.1–10.9.

136. See J. J. Vredenberg-Alink, Kaarten van Gelderland en dekwartieren: Proeve van een overzicht van gedrukte kaarten van Gelder-land en de kwartieren vanaf het midden der zestiende eeuw tot circa1850 (Arnhem: Vereniging ‘Gelre,’ 1975), 26 (no. 8) and 43 (no. 39a).

137. Vredenberg-Alink, Kaarten van Gelderland, 45– 46 (no. 42a–e). However, the order in which the maps appeared is given incorrectlyin this work.

138. Van der Vekene, Les cartes géographiques du duché de Luxem-bourg, 102–7 (figs. 2.16.a–2.16.b).

139. See J. C. H. de Groot, “Overijssels ‘landtafereel’ van de zeven-tiende eeuw: De oorspronkelijke kaart van Nicolaas ten Have, conrec-tor van de Latijnse School te Zwolle en kartograaf van Overijssel,”Overijsselse Historische Bijdragen 105 (1990): 61–83, and Koeman,Geschiedenis, 101.

140. See the bibliographical note by J. Grooten to the facsimile edi-tion: Claes Janz. Visscher, Visscher-Romankaart van Zeeland (Alphenaan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1973).

operations. Large campaigns and sieges took place, andcities acquired new fortifications. Obviously these devel-opments required large-scale military cartographic repre-sentations, including news maps, maps of fortifications,and military topographical maps. Many topographicaltown maps and atlases with manuscript maps of fortifica-tions also served as décor for various noble residences. Fi-nally, technical drawings were used in the planning of, de-cision making for, and building of fortifications.141

military mapping ordered by the spanish crown

Geographers in the service of Spain, such as Jacob vanDeventer, Christiaan Sgrooten, and Joost Jansz. Bilhamer,provided the earliest military topographical maps of citiesand provinces in the Low Countries. Dozens of Italian en-gineers also went to the Low Countries to apply theirwell-known expertise to the building of fortifications.These engineers used numerous drawings, which ulti-mately ended up in Spain or in Italy. Commissioned bySpanish generals, including Caspar de Robles, they alsoproduced many architectural plans for town fortificationsduring military campaigns.

The Earliest Town Mapping

Jacob van Deventer went to the University of Louvain in1520 and returned to live in the Northern Provinces foronly a short period.142 However, he was the first to drawan accurate plan of his native city, Kampen, as one of the260 semimilitary town plans ordered by Philip II. After1543, Van Deventer held the title of geographer to theEmperor Charles V and, after 1555, to Philip II as well.Contemporaries called him grandissimo geografo.143 Af-ter August 1548, Van Deventer signed archival docu-ments, such as receipts, “Jacob van Deventer, geographerto His Catholic Imperial Majesty acknowledges the re-ceipt of . . .” As far as we know, at that time he was theonly mapmaker in the Low Countries allowed to callhimself “geographer to the emperor.” Later, in 1557,Christiaan Sgrooten was appointed as geographer toPhilip II. Both Van Deventer and Sgrooten received an an-nual salary as well as allowances for expenditures in thefield.144 The services the king required from his geogra-pher can best be described as follows: to be His Majesty’sroyal geographer all by himself, surveying and drawing,alone, both large-scale and small-scale regional maps foradministrative and military purposes.

In or shortly before 1558, Van Deventer was commis-sioned by the king to measure and draw all the towns inthe Low Countries as well as the rivers and villages in theneighborhood, the access roads or districts, and the de-fense lines, and “to arrange all in one book that shall con-tain a map of each province followed by a plan of eachtown in particular.”145 Expressed in modern terms, what


the king was requesting was a complete set of plans oftowns in the Low Countries, each set in the context of itssurrounding topography on a topographical map of eachprovince.

Van Deventer fulfilled the first order, and most of histown plans have been preserved (fig. 43.15).146 In somecases, both the original plot (minuut) and the fair-drawn

141. For a detailed classification of military-topographical represen-tations, see Charles van den Heuvel, “Papiere bolwercken”: De intro-ductie van de Italiaanse stede- en vestingbouw in de Nederlanden(1540–1609) en het gebruik van tekeningen (Alphen aan den Rijn:Canaletto, 1991).

142. De Vries claims that Van Deventer lived in the Dutch city of Dor-drecht for a time following his studies (“Official Cartography,” 28).That was probably before 1542. He drew another map of Dordrecht in1544 or 1545, commissioned by the city government. Only one copy ofthis map, made in 1674, has survived. See Koeman and Visser, De stads-plattegronden van Jacob van Deventer. On Van Deventer and his work,see Van ’t Hoff, Jacob van Deventer; Antoine De Smet, “De plaats vanJacob van Deventer in de cartografie van de 16de eeuw,” De GuldenPasser 61–63 (1983–85): 461–82; and Karrow, Mapmakers of the Six-teenth Century, 142–58.

143. Lodovico Guicciardini, on the verso of an engraving of the townof Deventer in his Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi (Antwerp: GugliemusSilvius, 1567).

144. See, for example, the royal order dated 29 May 1559 given by theking at Brussels (Van ’t Hoff, Jacob van Deventer, 35–36): “The King,being informed that Mr. Jacob van Deventer, His geographer, was notpaid his annual salary of 200 florins, accorded him by the Mechelen-invoice, and wishing that he shall be paid every year . . . orders thatthe salary and allowances . . . be paid off.”

145. Brussels, Algemeen Rijksarchief. See Van ’t Hoff, Jacob van De-venter, 36.

146. All 223 preserved maps (minuten, or plots, and nettekeningen,or fair-drawn copies) by Jacob van Deventer are currently being repro-duced photographically at their actual size in the series by Koeman andVisser, De stadsplattegronden van Jacob van Deventer. Meanwhile, themaps of towns in the northern Low Countries and Germany have ap-peared in facsimile at their actual size, published with explanations bythe present-day province. An atlas was also published in 1995 withsmaller versions of the maps of the northern Low Countries, includinglegends for the towns illustrated: J. C. Visser, Door Jacob van Deventerin kaart gebracht: Kleine atlas van de Nederlandse steden in de zestiendeeeuw (Weesp: Robas BV, 1995).

Lithographed reproductions of the Belgian town maps had alreadyappeared in 1884, in Atlas des villes de la Belgique au XVIe siècle: Centplans du géographe Jacques de Deventer, 24 pts. in 4 vols., ed. C. Rue-lens, É. Ouverleaux, and Joseph van den Gheyn (Brussels, 1884 –1924).The first lithographed reproductions of towns in the Low Countrieswere published by R. Fruin in Nederlandse steden in de 16e eeuw:Plattegronden van Jacob van Deventer. 111 tekeningen en 97 cartons infacsimile uitgegeven (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1916 –23).

In many cases, the maps by Jacob van Deventer provide the oldest,best-preserved illustrations of Dutch towns of the time. Modern carto-bibliographies of these towns thus almost always begin with a descrip-tion and illustration of Van Deventer’s map. See, for example, the seriesHistorische plattegronden van Nederlandse steden. This series sketchesthe development of various towns in the Low Countries with referenceto maps. The towns that have been featured up to now include Amster-dam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Batavia, Haarlem, Leiden, and the towns ofHolland’s Noorderkwartier, Gelderland (Rivierengebied and Veluwe),and northwest Overijssel.

N O R T H S E A Em

s

Rhine

M

euse

IJssel

Scheld

t

Franeker

Sneek

HoornAlkmaar

Purmerend

Monnickendam

HaarlemAmsterdam

Edam

MuidenWeesp

Naarden

Leiden

UtrechtAmersfoort

Harderwijk

Elburg

Delft Gouda

Medemblik

GrootebroekEnkhuizen

Harlingen Leeuwarden

Dokkum

Groningen

Appingedam

Bolsward

WorkumIJlstHindeloopen

StaverenSloten

Kuinre Steenwijk

Vollenhove CoevordenGenemuiden

HasseltHardenberg

Kampen

ZwolleHattemOotmarsum

Lingen

AlmeloOldenzaal

Delden

GoorEnschede

Lochem

DeventerZutphen

DoesburgGroenlo

BredevoortDoetinchem

’s-Heerenberg

Arnhem

Nijmegen

Wageningen

Wijk bij Duurstede

MegenTiel

Culemborg

Rhenen

BurenAsperen

Vianen

WoerdenMontfoort IJsselstein

LeerdamNieuwpoortGorinchem

Heukelum

OudewaterSchoonhoven

The Hague

Dordrecht Woudrichem Zaltbommel

’s-HertogenboschHeusden

VlaardingenSchiedamRotterdam

Brielle

GeervlietGoedereede

Brouwershaven

ZevenbergenGeertruidenberg

ZierikzeeSt. MaartensdijkVeereWestkapelle

MiddelburgVlissingen

GoesArnemuiden

TholenBergen op Zoom

Reimerswaal

HulstAxel

Oostburg

Aardenburg

Sluis

Damme

Ghent

MiddelburgBrugesOudenburgOostende

GistelNieuwpoortVeurne DiksmuideDunkerque

GravelinesBergues

BourbourgHondschoote

Poperinge

Cassel

Saint-Omer

Mesen WervikMenen Harelbeke

OudenaardeKortrijkHalluin

CominesWarneton

Bailleul

LillersBéthune La Bassée

Pernes

Hesdin Saint Polsur Ternoise

Lens

ArmentiéresLilleAire

Douai

Orchies

Arras

Bapaume

Bouchain

Valenciennes

Tournai

Cambrai

Le Quesnoy

Le Cateau-Cambrésis

Avesnes

Bavay

Landrecies

Maubeuge

Helmond

Eindhoven

Geldern

Straelen

WachtendonkVenlo

WeertRoermond

Echt

Montfort Erkelenz

ValkenburgHerzogenrath

HerveLimbourg

LierHerentals

MechelenDendermonde

Aalst VilvoordeAarschot

Zichem

ZoutleeuwTienen

Landen

LeuvenBrusselsNinove

GeraardsbergenLessines

Ath EnghienHalle

Wavre

Braine-le-ComteLeuze-en-HainautChièvres Soignies

Le RoeulxGembloux

BincheMonsSaint-

GhislainCondé-sur l'Escaut

Bouvignes

Beaumont

Dinant

Mariembourg

Chimay

Marche-en-Famenne

Bastogne Bitburg

Chiny

Arlon

Carignan

Montmédy

Damvillers

Luxembourg

Echternach

Thionville

0 10 20

0

40 miles

km20 40

fig. 43.15. REFERENCE MAP OF CITIES MAPPED BY JA-COB VAN DEVENTER.Based on C. Koeman and J. C. Visser, De stadsplattegrondenvan Jacob van Deventer (Landsmeer: Robas, 1992–).

copy (netkaart) intended for the eyes of the king have sur-vived. Although 223 towns are represented, two neigh-boring towns are sometimes drawn on a single map, andthe total number of maps is 213; of these, 114 have sur-vived with both the original as well as the fair-drawn copy.Added to the fair-drawn copy, there is almost always asmaller inset—called a carton in the older literature—de-picting the densely built-up portion of the town. Such in-sets identify specific buildings and the fortifications. Thus,for a large number of the towns mapped by Van Deventer,there are two overall plans and one detailed plan available,which are identical in design but may vary in the details.No trace has been found of the province maps that wereto accompany the town plans. In 1572, Sgrooten obtainedan order to perform measurements for a topographic mapof the Low Countries. This would seem to provide evi-dence that the topographic maps ordered from Van De-venter were never produced.

The enormous task of surveying all of the towns in theLow Countries was completed within approximatelytwelve years. Remarkably, Van Deventer adopted a liberalinterpretation of his orders. Thus, some settlements, suchas Beverwijk, Grootebroek, and Hindeloopen, which hadbeen favored with certain town privileges for more than acentury despite the fact that they did not have walls andcould not strictly be regarded as constituting towns, weremapped. Van Deventer was provided with letters of rec-ommendation to the magistrates and obtained field assis-tance from local citizens. Presumably as a result of the bur-dens of age—he was nearly seventy—he was slow incompleting the fair drawings. In 1572, due to the politicalupheaval caused by the arbitrary imposition of taxes bySpain’s general, the duke of Alba, Van Deventer had tomove to the city of Cologne, where he stayed until the endof his life. Just after his death in 1575, three volumes withfair-drawn town plans—all unsigned, supplemented byoutline plans of the town’s defense works and public build-ings—and some of the original plots were impounded bythe Spanish administration and later, after 1577, sent toMadrid. Two of the three volumes have been preserved,but the third volume, comprising the plans of thirty-sixtowns in the Southern Provinces, is missing.147 The ma-jority of the original plots on which the fair drawings werebased were kept at Mechelen by Barbara Smets, a com-panion of Van Deventer with whom he had stayed since1540.148 By some unknown route, this set of loose plotsreappeared almost three centuries later, in 1859.149

All of the towns were plotted at about the same scale, 1:8000, and drawn in a uniform style (plate 49). They areall plans with structures in oblique parallel projection, aregeometrically accurate, and contain no scale distortion.The specific buildings and fortifications were drawn verti-cally, which was fairly common in the first half of the six-teenth century. Van Deventer illustrated specific buildings,


including cathedrals in the towns, as realistically as pos-sible (fig. 43.16). The unsigned plots give a clear impres-sion of Van Deventer’s method of surveying. He measuredpolygonic tracks along roads and streets, counting stepsand taking sights with a compass.150 A scale was shown inmost of the plans, for instance, “500 paces of five feet,” re-ferring to a line 8.6 or 8.7 centimeters in length. One pacecomprised two steps of approximately 75 centimeters (twoand a half feet) each. A thousand (mille) paces was con-sidered a mile. In some cases, Van Deventer also made useof older measurements and mapping. The oldest map-ping—perhaps with later additions—was done of the

147. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Manuscritos Reserve 200 and207. On Van Deventer’s maps in Madrid, see H. P. Deys, “De stads-plattegronden van Jacob van Deventer: Resultaten van recent onderzoekte Madrid,” Caert-Thresoor 8 (1989): 81–95.

148. In a letter dated 23 November 1575 by Vigilius van Aytta, pres-ident of the king’s council at Brussels (the same person whose large mapcollection is mentioned in Bagrow, “Old Inventories of Maps,” 18) toJacobus Hopper, representative of the Low Countries at the court atMadrid, notice is given of the set of manuscript plots kept “by a femalein Mechelen, the housewife or mistress of Van Deventer,” and, VanAytta continues, “I have taken the trouble to try to obtain the plots,promising her a reward . . . and His Majesty will, as I hope, have no ob-jections to pay.” See Van ’t Hoff, Jacob van Deventer, 47.

149. They appeared in a sale at the auction house of the Messrs. Nij-hoff at The Hague. On 11 April 1859, a collection of 152 maps fromthe estate of François van Aerssen was offered for sale, described as fol-lows: “Fragments of old maps of parts of Zeeland, Flanders, also Northand South Holland and Friesland, plans of cities in these regions, etc.etc. All drawn and colored in the sixteenth century.” The new ownerwas the Amsterdam antiquarian Frederik Muller, who in turn sold themin 1865 to Wopke Eekhoff, archivist of Leeuwarden in Friesland.Eekhoff recognized them as the town maps by Jacob van Deventer, de-scribed in the literature. See Frederik Muller, “De oorspronkelijkeplanteekeningen van 152 noord- en zuidnederlandsche steden, om-streeks 1550 door Jacob van Deventer geteekend, teruggevonden,” W.Eekhoff, “Jacobus van Deventer, vervaardiger van de oudste kaarten vande Nederlandsche en Belgische provinciën en steden,” and G. P. Roos,“Jacobus van Deventer,” all in De Navorscher 16 (1866): 193–96,225–28, and 289–90. The first two articles were reprinted in Acta Car-tographica 2 (1968): 437– 40, and 1 (1967): 33–36, respectively.Thanks to Eekhoff, almost all plot maps found a permanent home instate archives in the provinces of the Netherlands and in the Royal Li-brary of Belgium in Brussels. The plot maps of the Frisian towns, how-ever, are in the collection of the Friesch Genootschap, with the excep-tion of the map of Leeuwarden; this map is located in the local cityarchives. Since 1866, sixteen plot maps either have been lost or their lo-cation is unknown: maps of Appingedam, Geervliet, and fourteen of thetowns in Zeeland. The plot map of Middelburg in Flanders surfaced in1994. It appeared to have been in the collection of the Rijksarchief inGhent. About this find, see H. A. M. van der Heijden, “De minuutkaartvan Middelburg in Vlaanderen van Jacob van Deventer teruggevon-den,” Caert-Thresoor 15 (1996): 107–8.

It was not until 1884 that two volumes with town maps in the Bi-blioteca Nacional in Madrid were identified as two of the three volumesof the atlas with the fair-drawn maps that Van Deventer had made inKeulen in 1575. The first volume, unfortunately, appears to have beenlost.

150. On Van Deventer’s method of surveying, see Pouls, De landme-ter, 120–22.


large towns in Brabant by Van Deventer himself in theearly 1550s. After receiving his formal commission, VanDeventer traveled successively through Zeeland, Gelder-land, Holland, Friesland, and Groningen and farthersouth. He did the mapping in Flanders last.151

It would be impossible for one person to survey260 towns and depict every house. Consequently, in VanDeventer’s plans he selectively depicted streets, canals, de-fense walls, windmills, public buildings, churches, andmonasteries. Outside the town walls, he showed roads,waterways, and dispersed settlements. Marshy, wet ter-rain was distinguished from passable ground by the useof different colors. It is clear from their uniformity of scaleand cartographic signs and from their selected topogra-phy that, in accordance with the king’s instructions, theseplans were drawn as military plans. Given the uniform ca-pacity of guns, the value of plans at the same scale for anarmy, especially its artillery, is obvious. This is the earli-est example of a collection of maps of walled townswithin the Spanish-Habsburg empire. However, Van De-venter’s plans were produced too late to assist the Span-ish in quelling the rebellions in the towns.

Several plans in Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg’sCivitates orbis terrarum (1572–1618) were copied fromVan Deventer’s originals.152 It can be assumed that themaps were copied in Cologne, where the engraver Hogen-berg, also living in exile, met Van Deventer.

Regional Military Mapping

Apparently Charles V’s need for reliable topographicalinformation in map form was not sufficiently met, despite

Van Deventer’s efforts. After 1555, when Philip II suc-ceeded Charles V as king of the Seventeen Provinces of theLow Countries, the mapmaker Christiaan Sgrooten wasappointed as the king’s geographer in a letter dated 2 De-cember 1557:153 “As our beloved Christiaan Sgrooten re-cently has made with great cost and labor the maps of theVeluwe [a region in the province of Gelderland] for whichwe want to reward him and further want to keep him inour service to employ him in similar matter . . . [we grant]him an annual support and pension of six stuvers bra-bants a day.”154

Sgrooten was born about 1520 at Sonsbeck on the lower Rhine in the duchy of Cleve. After his educa-tion as a “master”—presumably also as a painter—he lived in Kalkar from 1548 on. After the uprising of the seven provinces in the north, the completion of a modern topographic map of the Low Countries becameimportant, because the duke of Alba and his Spanish soldiers were not familiar with the infrastructure of the rebellious provinces. Armies had to move to besiegetowns in Holland such as Haarlem, Alkmaar, and Leidenand to fight battles in Groningen and Brabant. Sgrootenreceived a commission from the duke of Alba in 1568.The newly appointed Spanish military chief of staff in the rebellious Low Countries asked for more than just a set of topographical maps of the Northern Provinces; he required maps of all the king’s lands in Europe. Thiscommission marked a new period in Sgrooten’s career.Although he had been a paid geographer to the king since December 1557 and his commission was a lifelongtask, he did not receive remuneration or permanent em-ployment.

About six years later, around 1574, Sgrooten presentedhis work in the form of a manuscript atlas to the militarycommander at Brussels. To his disappointment, it wasdeemed lacking in detail, and he was asked to improve onit. The duke of Alba failed to specify a scale when he or-dered “the description of the cities and the villages and

fig. 43.16. DETAIL FROM THE TOWN PLAN OF DOR-DRECHT BY JACOB VAN DEVENTER, CA. 1560.Size of the entire original: 41.5 � 47.5 cm. Photograph cour-tesy of the Nationaal Archief, The Hague (4.DEF, inv. nr. 1.2).

151. Koeman and Visser, De stadsplattegronden van Jacob van De-venter, introductions to the different parts.

152. Koeman and Visser, De stadsplattegronden van Jacob van De-venter, introductions to the different parts, and Peter H. Meurer, At-lantes Coloniensis: Die Kölner Schule der Atlaskartographie 1570–1610 (Bad Neustadt a.d. Saale: Pfaehler, 1988), 28– 41.

153. On Sgrooten, see Rolf Kirmse, “Christian Sgrothen aus Sons-beck, seiner Hispanischen Majestät Geograph,” Heimatkalender KreisMoers 24 (1967): 17– 41; idem, “Christian Sgrothen, seine Herkunftund seine Familie,” Heimatkalender Kreis Moers 28 (1971): 118–29;Karrow, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century, 480–94; Meurer, Fontescartographici Orteliani, 237– 40 and figs. 64 –65; and Peter H. Meurer,Die Manuskriptatlanten Christian Sgrootens (Alphen an den Rijn:Canaletto, forthcoming).

154. Fernand van Ortroy, “Chrétien Sgrooten, cartographe, XVIe

siècle,” Annales de l’Académie Royal d’Archéologie de Belgique 71(1923): 150–306, esp. 274.

the countries of His Majesty, and of their boundary Lim-its.”155 Sgrooten initially compiled a general map of theLow Countries at approximately 1:250,000 and the var-ious maps of Germany, France, and other areas at a scaleof approximately 1:400,000 or smaller. After the nega-tive comments from Brussels, he improved on his map ofthe Low Countries merely by drawing another copy at ascale of 1:120,000, twice as large as the preceding one.

In 1592, the work came to an end. It was still not alto-gether to the satisfaction of Sgrooten’s superiors in Brus-sels. However, Sgrooten had produced a manuscript atlascomposed of maps of excellent geometrical accuracy,156

and a favorable opinion of his work was expressed as earlyas 1585 by Gerardus Mercator in the text on the verso ofhis atlas map of France when he referred to the mapmakeras “Sgrooten, who has traveled widely in France and whohas mapped the country with greater precision than any-one before him.” Mercator had obviously seen the manu-script maps on which Sgrooten had worked at Kalkar.

In the preface to his work, dated December 1588, Sgrooten addressed himself to the king and suggested that he could enlarge the atlas with large-scale maps of the provinces in the Low Countries (see fig. 43.17 and table 43.1). His suggestion was accepted, and thepayments were continued. In a supplementary preface,Sgrooten presented his amended work to the king. Acomparison of these maps with Van Deventer’s provincemaps makes it clear that Sgrooten’s work was based onthe geometric foundation laid by Van Deventer (plate 50).For repositories of Sgrooten’s maps, we depend on thecollections of the rulers of the Spanish possessions in theLow Countries: the court at Brussels and the court atMadrid.157

Sgrooten was one of the most aesthetically talented car-tographers of the sixteenth century, of the same rank asGerardus Mercator. In his maps, the graphic representa-tion of topography reflects an understanding of the mor-


1

2

3

11

9

8

7

6

54

12 a+b

13 a+b14 a+b

15 a+b

16

17

N O R T H S E A

0 10 20

0

miles

km20

fig. 43.17. REFERENCE MAP OF CHRISTIAAN SGROO-TEN’S TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS. See table 43.1 for the de-tails of these maps.Based on Y. Marijke Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografischekaarten van Nederland vóór 1750: Handgetekende engedrukte kaarten, aanwezig in de Nederlandse rijksarchieven(Groningen: Wolters Noordhoff and Bouma’s Boekhuis,1981), blw. III.

Unfortunately, the collection at Brussels of Viglius van Aytta, presidentof the king’s council, assembled in the period from about 1550 to 1575,has been lost; see E. H. Waterbolk, “Viglius of Aytta, Sixteenth CenturyMap Collector,” Imago Mundi 29 (1977): 45– 48. A collection of mapsof King Philip II at Madrid—if it ever existed—is never mentioned. Boththe Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the library of the Escorial were exploredby Wieder in 1914. His findings, published in 1915–16, are still a source-book for the study of Dutch cartography in Europe and in the overseaspossessions; see F. C. Wieder, “Nederlandsche historisch-geographischedocumenten in Spanje: Uitkomsten van twee maanden onderzoek,” Tijd-schrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap31 (1914): 693–724; 32 (1915): 1–34, 145–87, 285–318, 775–822,and second pagination 1–158; reprinted as Nederlandsche historisch-geographische documenten in Spanje (Leiden: Brill, 1915); also re-printed in Acta Cartographica 23 (1976): 115– 464.

Among the king’s collections are the two bindings of town plans (pre-viously mentioned) and a binding with manuscript maps of all theworld’s countries drawn by Sgrooten. Once, there were two such bind-ings in the king’s library, but on a day in 1859, the archivist L. P. Gachardwent home from a visit to Spain with the second Sgrooten atlas bought,as he said, from a friend of King Ferdinand VII; see Wieder, “Spanje,”31. That was the binding with detailed manuscript topographical mapsof the Low Countries and Germany. It is amazing that this private dealof 1859 involved property that had belonged to a royal library.

155. Van Ortroy, “Chrétien Sgrooten,” 290.156. Donkersloot–De Vrij gives an overview of Sgrooten’s maps of

the provinces of the Low Countries in Topografische kaarten van Ne-derland vóór 1750, 132–33.

157. The Sgrooten atlases in Madrid and Brussels contain, amongother things, two sets of maps of the Low Countries at scales of ap-proximately 1:230,000, and 1:120,000. The contents of the atlas in theBiblioteca Nacional at Madrid comprises thirty-eight maps of approxi-mately 83 by 136 centimeters each. These include a world map in twohemispheres and maps of the Holy Land, northern Europe, Germany,Poland, Hungary, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and the Low Coun-tries (which are represented twice). The atlas in the Royal Library of Bel-gium, Brussels, contains thirty-seven maps of approximately 58 by100 centimeters each. These include three nautical charts of the NorthSea and Zuiderzee; detailed topographical maps of the Low Countries;similar maps of the Belgian and west German provinces; and maps ofsouth Germany, Austria, and northern Italy. Both atlases are illuminatedin a most exuberant style. See Koeman, Gewestkaarten van de Neder-landen, 17–18.

phology of the land. Thus, he most successfully rendereda landscape with rivers, canals, polders, and small vil-lages. Similarly, he superbly expressed the morphology ofmountainous and forested terrain. A closer examinationof his maps reveals the manner in which he miniaturizedwalled towns and rural villages, recognizable by the char-acteristic shape of their church towers. Every small set-tlement was stylistically integrated into the general styleof the map. It is incomprehensible that the duke of Albawould be displeased with this magnificent cartography. Acomparison of Sgrooten with his predecessor Van Deven-ter demonstrates that Sgrooten was a much more talentedcartographer. Van Deventer may have had superior landsurveying skills and greater efficiency in the straightfor-ward plotting of his surveys, but his representation oflandscape fell short of the work of Sgrooten in characterand elegance.158

Unfortunately, the majority of Sgrooten’s work has notbeen made public. This is also in contrast to Van Deven-ter’s manuscript town plans and printed province maps,

which were copied by contemporary engravers. Sgrooten’smanuscript maps, made for the king of Spain, had no ef-fect on the development of contemporary cartography.Around 1592, his maps were locked up in the royal cabi-net and were not recognized as important until three cen-turies later. Sgrooten’s manuscript atlas of all of Spain’slands in Europe was the last state-organized mapping ofthe whole of the country until the triangulation of theBataafsche Republiek, ordered in 1798.


Table 43.1 Christiaan Sgrooten’s Topographical Maps of the Low Countries, 1568–1573

Number Region Shown Size and Scale

1 Zuiderzee and Waddenzee, North Holland, Friesland, and the coast 60 � 54.5 cm, ca. 1:200,000of Gelderland

2 Groningen, estuary of the Eems, Ost-Friesland (East Friesland), Jahde, 56 � 59.5 cm, ca. 1:200,000Waddeneilanden from Schiermonnikoog to Wangeroog

3 Overijssel, Drenthe, southeastern part of Groningen, Dollart 57 � 59 cm, ca. 1:200,0004 Southern part of North Holland, South Holland, Utrecht, western part 46.5 � 53 cm, ca. 1:200,000

of Gelderland, northeastern part of Zeeland, northwestern part of North Brabant

5 Gelderland and Cleves 53 � 56 cm, ca. 1:200,0006 Islands of South Holland, Zeeland, western part of North Brabant, 54 � 56.5 cm, ca. 1:200,000

Zeeuws Vlaanderen (Dutch Flanders)7 Duchy of Brabant 60 � 57.5 cm, ca. 1:200,0008 Area between the Meuse and the Rhine rivers, Limburg, Jülich, Cologne 59.5 � 58 cm, ca. 1:200,0009 Diocese (Bishopric) of Liége 56.5 � 50 cm, ca. 1:200,000[10] Ardennes, Luxembourg, Namen (Namur) (not shown on fig. 43.17)11 North Holland 59 � 115 cm, ca. 1:80,00012 a � b Holland between Amsterdam/Haarlem, Delft /Gouda, and Utrecht 59.5 � 114.5 cm, ca. 1:80,00013 a � b South Holland to the south of Delft, Hollandsche IJssel River, estuary 58.5 � 97 cm, ca. 1:80,000

of the Rhine and Meuse, Schouwen-Duiveland, northwest North Brabant14 a � b Area of the Meuse River, the Rhine, Lek, Betuwe and surroundings 59 � 97 cm, ca. 1:80,00015 a � b Zeeland, Ooster- and Westerschelde (eastern and western Scheldt), 113 � 58.5 cm, ca. 1:80,000

Zeeuws Vlaanderen (Dutch Flanders) (original title: Descriptio exactissima effluxus Schaldis . . . Walachria, Zuijdt Bevelandiae . . .)

16 Veluwe 59.5 � 48 cm, ca. 1:120,00017 County of Bergh and surroundings (Liemers, etc.) 58 � 58.5 cm, ca. 1:80,000

Source: Derived from Y. Marijke Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografische kaarten van Nederland vóór 1750: Handgetekende en gedruktekaarten, aanwezig in de Nederlandse rijksarchieven (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff and Bouma’s Boekhuis, 1981), 132 and blw. III. See figure43.17.

158. A complete facsimile reproduction of Sgrooten’s great atlases is:Peter H. Meurer, Die Manuskriptatlanten Christian Sgrootens (Alphenan den Rijn: Canaletto, forthcoming). The maps of the Low Countriesand of Germany have been reproduced in black and white: S. J. Fock-ema Andreae and Bert van ’t Hoff, Christiaan Sgroten’s kaarten van deNederlanden in reproductie uitgegeven onder auspicien van het Konink-lijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap (Leiden: Brill, 1961).See also Hans Mortensen and Arend W. Lang, eds., Die Kartendeutscher Länder im Brüsseler Atlas des Christian s’Grooten (1573),2 vols. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959).

Another sixteenth-century producer of regional maps inthe Low Countries was Joost Jansz. Bilhamer of Amster-dam, sometimes called Beeldsnijder. He made his name asa woodcutter, architect, and cartographer. Bilhamer wasone of the few Dutch engineers among a large group ofItalian tradesmen working for the Spanish crown. Severalmanuscript maps from his hand are known.159

After the outbreak of a rebellion in 1567, the NorthernProvinces were enemy territory for the Spanish troops.Because the main elements of the communication systemwere rivers and lakes, the Spanish urgently needed a com-plete picture of that complicated system. In 1571, theduke of Alba ordered Bilhamer, the municipal architect ofAmsterdam at that time, to provide him with a detailedtopographical map of the northern part of the province ofHolland. The duke’s order, with its specifications, hasbeen preserved in the text of Pontanus’s chronicle of Am-sterdam of 1614:

Mr. Joost Jansz., engraver, also an inhabitant and res-ident of the town, famous for his many works of art.He was not only famous as an engraver, but also pos-sessed a natural gift to depict lands, towns, rivers, andwaters according the properties of the geography.Among his works is a map which about the year 1571was ordered by the Duke of Alba, whose intention wasto bring to obedience the northern part of Holland, forwhich he wished Joost Jansz. to show him on a map thewhole area, with the district of Waterland; what Joostaccomplished; and what is considered as correct andfine. Because not only towns, villages, churches, butalso lands, streams, waters, dikes, roads, locks, etc., aredepicted true to life. I have seen this map, which has re-cently been engraved and printed in Amsterdam.160

The manuscript map that Pontanus saw has not beenpreserved, and no copy is known of the first printed edi-tion of the map of 1575. Only the 1608 publication by theAmsterdam printer Harmen Allertsz. van Warmenhuysenhas survived (fig. 43.18). This printed map is signed“Anno 1575, dd. 31st July completed and published byme Joost Janso[on].”161 The author, who used as hismark a builder’s hammer (fig. 43.19), often signed asJoost Jansz. Beeldsnijder (meaning engraver, “picture cut-ter”) but sometimes as landmeter (meaning land sur-veyor). Six copies are known of the printed map, two ofwhich have a decorative border that was engraved byClaes Jansz. Visscher.162 All of these copies have as an imprint a dedication to the states of North Holland and West Friesland by the printer Harmen Allertsz. vanWarmenhuysen. The two copies with a decorative bor-der and text have the imprint “Tot Amsterdam, Ghe-druckt by Herman Allertz. Koster van die Nieuwkerck.Anno M.D.C.VIII [i.e., 1608].” At the bottom of themap, the text of the privilege granted by the representa-tive of Philip II is recorded: “By Royal Majesties Privilegeaccorded Joost Jansz. Beeldsnijder at Amsterdam that no-

body is allowed to counterfeit, print, or sell within threeyears from now without special permission of Joost Jansz.this map of North Holland, at forfeiture of all such mapsand three karolus guilders, as explained in detail in theprivilege granted to him at Antwerp. Signed Louys de Re-quesen and also Secretary Betij.”

At this time, Joost Jansz. Bilhamer was in the service ofthe municipality of Amsterdam. Before 1578, the yearwhen Amsterdam’s magistrate changed to the oppositionparty, he rendered services to the military engineers of theSpanish army. On his map of North Holland, he gave thenames of the entrenchments in front of the city of Leidenin Spanish. After 1578, he gave similar support and ad-vice to the city of Amsterdam in its defense against theSpanish troops.

Bilhamer’s map of North Holland is unique in its rep-resentation of the road and waterway systems. Althoughpaved roads did not exist at that time, he drew with adouble line all the dikes accessible to pedestrians and traf-fic. The scale of the map, about 1:100,000, is still todaythe preferable scale for tourists’ maps in the Netherlands.The map resembles Christiaan Sgrooten’s map of NorthHolland. The two men would have met each other andspoken in consultation with their Spanish superiors. Butthere is more than a resemblance: the scales are the same,and the northern and southern limits of both maps coin-cide exactly. Further, the east-west limits are the same,and the outline of North Holland (an outline readily mis-interpreted due to unstable relations between land andsea) is identical. On Bilhamer’s map, villages are markedby their churches, but names of minor places and namesof land and water bodies are given by number and ex-plained in a legend. Given the large number of names ofland and water features, Harmen Allertsz., the printer,justly labeled his reprint a “land and water map.”

The decorative border of Bilhamer’s map was reprintedonce more in 1620 by the Amsterdam engraver and art-


159. See the biographical note accompanying the facsimile editions ofthe map of North Holland in A. J. Kölker, De kaart van Holland doorJoost Jansz. (Haarlem, 1971), and Jan W. H. Werner, ed., Kaart vanNoord-Holland door Joost Jansz. Beeldsnijder, 1575/1608 (Alphen aanden Rijn: Canaletto/Repro-Holland, 2002).

160. Johannes Isacius Pontanus, Historische beschrijvinghe der seerwijt beroemde coop-stadt Amsterdam (Amsterdam: Ghedruckt by Iu-docum Hondium, 1614), 287.

161. On this map, see Kölker, De kaart van Holland; Werner, Kaartvan Noord-Holland; and MCN, 5:291–95.

162. The Universiteitsbibliotheek, Amsterdam, and the Westfries Mu-seum, Hoorn, contain a map by Joost Jansz., published by Van War-menhuysen, including a decorative frame with a detailed text. The frameand text are missing from the copies in the Nationaal Archief in TheHague, the Universiteitsbibliotheek in Leiden, and the Rijksprenten-kabinet and the Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen in Amster-dam. On the illustrations by Claes Jansz. Visscher in the decorativeframe, see Christiaan Schuckman, Claes Jansz. Visscher to Claes Jansz.Visscher II (Roosendaal: Koninklijke Van de Poll, 1991), and Nalis, VanDoetecum Family, pt. 1, 95–98 and 115–17.

fig. 43.18. 1608 WALL MAP OF NORTH HOLLAND ANDWEST FRIESLAND, REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINALBY JOOST JANSZ. BILHAMER, 1575. In six sheets.

Size of the original: 116.5 � 103.5 cm. Photograph courtesyof the Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam (W.X).

seller François van den Hoeye. The surrounding text wasnewly set, and a poem to Hadrianus Junius was replacedby a description and map of Beemster, which had beendiked in during the interim.163 One last unique aspect ofthe map should be mentioned: it was reengraved in 1778with the intention of demonstrating how early maps couldcontribute to a knowledge of historical geography.164 Thisrepresents an early indication of the awakening of interestin that subject. Further, Bilhamer’s map influenced the im-age of one of the maps in Christiaan Sgrooten’s atlas, thefolio map of Holland from 1608 by Willem Jansz. Blaeu,and the wall map of Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode.165

Another map of the same period, also depicting thecomplicated system of waterways below sea level, is Hans Liefrinck’s manuscript map of Holland from 1578(fig. 43.20).166 Liefrinck was employed by the town mag-istrates of Dordrecht, Gouda, and Haarlem to draw thismap as a piece of evidence in a lawsuit against the townof Delft. The resemblance to the topography of the south-ern part of Bilhamer’s map leads to the conclusion that inthe period around 1570, a “master model” of the prov-ince of Holland was available to all who needed a basicconfiguration of the province’s infrastructure. In the leg-end, Liefrinck confirmed that he had copied from exist-ing maps.

Italian Expertise in Military Mapping

In the sixteenth century, interest in the construction of de-fense systems noticeably increased in large parts of Eu-rope. This was particularly true in the Italian states, al-though interest spread rapidly to neighboring countries.Given the superior knowledge and expertise of the Italianengineers in the building of fortifications, it is not surpris-ing that there was a demand for them throughout Europe,including the Low Countries, where more and more Ital-

ian engineers offered their services over the course of thesixteenth century.167 A total of approximately sixty Italianengineers ultimately worked in the Low Countries duringthe period from 1540 to 1609.168 The first engineers wereprivately commissioned to work on the construction ofcastles. One of them, Alessandro Pasqualini, helpedshortly after 1539 with the fortification of Buren, a smalltown in Gelre. The fortificatiemeester (master of fortifica-tions) subsequently worked in various other cities in theLow Countries. The first Italian fortress builder in gov-ernment service was Donato Boni di Pellizuoli. As head en-gineer to Charles V, he was responsible for the construc-tion, maintenance, and repair of all fortifications. Heinspected fortifications and plans made by other engi-neers. In addition, he produced designs, such as those forthe strongholds of Ghent and Kamerrijk. Donato musthave gained great fame as a fortress builder, because hisdesign was selected for the walling in of Antwerp in 1540.

The number of military engineers working in the LowCountries in the second half of the sixteenth century wastoo small to supply all towns with fortifications where de-fense systems appeared necessary. But the influence of theItalian engineers was great, partly because the Dutch ar-chitects were under their supervision in the planning andconstruction of fortifications. These local Dutch expertswere needed to lay the groundwork for the arrival of Ital-ian engineers, because the defense systems used in Italywere only minimally appropriate for the geographical sit-uation of the Low Countries. In addition, they becameoutdated quickly. Among the experienced military engi-neers was Giovanni Maria Olgiati, who traveled through-out the Low Countries in 1553 and 1554 and then leftbehind him a group of engineers prepared to modernizethe fortifications according to the Italian system. Olgiati’scontact with the chief engineer in the Low Countries,


fig. 43.19. PRINTER’S MARK OF JOOST JANSZ. BIL-HAMER. From the Kaartboek het Gasthuis, 1583.Photograph courtesy of the Gemeentearchief, Amsterdam.

163. See Günter Schilder, Three World Maps by Francois van den Hoeye of 1661, Willem Janszoon (Blaeu) of 1607, Claes Janszoon Vis-scher of 1650 (Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1981), 7–8.

164. Land- en waterkaert van Noord Holland (Amsterdam: Yntemaand Tieboel, 1778), engraved by J. van Jagen, with explanatory text,“Noodig berigt,” by J. le Francq van Berkley. See Peter van der Krogt,Advertenties voor kaarten, atlassen, globes e.d. in Amsterdamse kran-ten 1621–1811 (Utrecht: HES, 1985), 257–58 (no. 1391) and 264(no. 1429).

165. Blonk and Blonk–van der Wijst, Hollandia Comitatus, 35–36.166. Copy in Gouda, Streekarchief Midden Holland (2223 C 1). See

C. W. Hesselink-Duursma, “De kaartencollectie in het StreekarchiefHollands Midden te Gouda,” Caert-Thresoor 15 (1996): 99–104, andDonkersloot–De Vrij, Topografische kaarten van Nederland vóór1750, 135.

167. For a comprehensive review of the influence of Italian town andfortress building on the building of fortifications in the Low Countries,see Van den Heuvel, “Papiere bolwercken.” See also chapter 29 in thisvolume.

168. Van den Heuvel provides a description of each Italian engineer(“Papiere bolwercken,” 149–59).


fig. 43.20. MANUSCRIPT MAP OF SOUTH HOLLAND BYHANS LIEFRINCK, 1578.

Sebastiaan Van Noyen, must have been significant withregard to the practical application of Italian fortress-building methods (fig. 43.21).169

With the arrival of the duke of Alba in 1567, a newgroup of Italian engineers went to the Low Countries who were specifically called in for the construction offortresses. The duke of Alba preferred the Italian engi-neers over local builders, both in the planning and in the

execution of those plans. Under the Spanish commandersAlessandro Farnese and Ambrogio Spinola, the emphasison fortress building gradually shifted toward temporarybarricades in the field, and the tasks of the engineerschanged along with it.

169. Van den Heuvel, “Papiere bolwercken,” 27–29.

Size of the original: 115 � 112 cm. Photograph courtesy of theStreekarchief Midden-Holland, Gouda (2223 C1).

During the period when the Italian engineers were oc-cupied in the Low Countries, they sent many depictionsof military activity to their patrons in Spain and Italy.Drawings and models were a significant aid in the vari-ous phases of planning and construction of new fortifica-tions. In addition to making these drawings, which weredirectly related to the construction of fortresses, the engi-neers depicted war events and technical military innova-tions in drawings that they sent to the Spanish and Ital-


ian courts. The best preserved illustrations, which includemany maps, are found in Spanish and Italian collec-tions.170 These collections show great variety in the draw-

fig. 43.21. GIOVANNI MARIA OLGIATI, DRAWING OFMAASTRICHT, 1553. With advice on fortification by Olgiati.Size of the original: 98 � 114 cm. Photograph © Biblioteca

Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City (Barb. Lat. 4391A, XLII[43]).

170. There are more than two hundred representations in all, whichare primarily located in the Archivo General de Simancas; the Archivode la Casa de los Duques de Alba, Madrid; the Archivo di Stato, Turin;the Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin; the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,Vatican City; and the Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence. See Van den

ing of fortifications.171 Drawings of fortifications werefrequently copied, and several groups of maps, copiedfrom other drawings, were made into an atlas showingfortresses in the Northern and Southern Provinces at theend of the sixteenth century.172

In addition to making atlases with manuscript maps,Italian engineers also made themselves useful in the areaof mapping military operations. They drew maps duringor after battles, campaigns, and sieges, and numerousbeautifully colored maps of various sieges thus found theirway to the Italian courts.173 One example is the set ofsixty-three manuscript maps of fortresses and areas of theLow Countries in two different volumes, probably copiedfrom an (as yet) unknown atlas, which may have been pro-duced on commission from the Spanish-Portuguese com-mander Caspar de Robles, 174 who was governor of Fries-land, Groningen, and Ommelanden from 1573 to1576.175 These maps, probably drawn by Italian cartog-raphers or engineers, concern mainly both large and smallcities in Friesland. In addition to providing topographicalinformation about sites, they also depict military activityduring one of de Robles’s battles in 1572. Moreover, thereare fortress plans from larger towns elsewhere in the LowCountries, such as Deventer, Zwolle, Maastricht, Bergenop Zoom, Bruges, Halle, Cambrai, and Lille. These atlaseswere—in addition to being collectors’ items—expres-sions of a military culture. Beyond that, they were personalstatus symbols reflecting a patron’s knowledge of the Eu-ropean war theater and emphasizing the significance of hispersonal role or his relationship to someone else of signifi-cance (fig. 43.22).176

The aspect of cartography on which the Italian engi-neers left their greatest mark concerns the use of drawingsand models in the various phases of the planning and con-struction of fortifications. Fortress building was a com-plicated process, through which the engineer made draw-ings and models at each step. The first stage was theproduction of technical drawings to test one’s idea and tomake it clear to the foremen. Later, during the decision-making process, the drawings were used to inform pa-trons and to monitor the progress of activity. The carto-graphic representation was thus closely tied to a specificphase of planning or construction. After the initialsketches came studies, survey drawings, detail drawings,written and illustrated instructions, designs on paper andwood, illustrations of the process, and then the illustra-tion of the final design. Copies were often made of thesefinal illustrations for a variety of reasons, both decorativeand informative.177

By the end of the sixteenth century, Italian theoriesabout military architecture had completely penetrated theLow Countries. In practice, however, the Italian fortresssystem had to be revised. Under the influence of DanielSpecklin178 and Simon Stevin (fortress builders from Ger-many and the Low Countries, respectively), a fortification


system developed that was better suited to the specific ge-ographical situation of the Low Countries. Italian theo-ries played a more and more limited role in the formationof ideas about architecture and town structure, and mostof the Italian engineers left the Low Countries even beforethe beginning of the Twelve Year Truce in 1609, whenSpain and the northern Low Countries concluded a tem-porary cease-fire. As a result, surveyors and fortressbuilders of the Low Countries became more active.

Dutch Military Engineers in Spanish Service

In addition to Italian engineers, engineers from the LowCountries also worked for Spain during the first period ofthe Eighty Years War up until the Twelve Year Truce.There were at least fifteen of these fortress builders.179 TheAmsterdam architect Joost Jansz. Bilhamer, for example,

Heuvel, “Papiere bolwercken,” 49–50. This work also provides a re-view of handwritten maps and prints of towns and fortifications in theLow Countries from the second half of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century in Belgian, Italian, and Spanish collections.

171. The Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin contains an atlas with ninetymanuscript maps of Italian and Dutch defenses (MS. q.II.57). Althoughthe maps are not dated, they mainly show the situation before themiddle of the sixteenth century. See Van den Heuvel, “Papiere bol-wercken,” 53–57.

172. Turin, Archivio di Stato (Architettura Militare, vol. 4.) See Vanden Heuvel, “Papiere bolwercken,” 58–61.

173. Turin, Archivio di Stato (Architettura Militare, vol. 4 [ J.b.I.6])contains, for example, various colored maps of sieges in the Low Coun-tries: Antwerp, Bergen op Zoom, Geertruidenberg, Gulik, Haarlem,Hulst, Maastricht, Oostende, Rheinberg, and Wesel. See Van denHeuvel, “Papiere bolwercken,” 66 –67.

174. On de Robles, see Meindert Schroor and Charles van denHeuvel, De Robles atlassen: Vestingbouwkundige plattegronden uit deNederlanden en een verslag van een veldtocht in Friesland in 1572(Leeuwarden: Rijksarchief in Friesland, 1998), 77–85.

175. The one volume is located in Dresden, Sächsisches Hauptstaats-archiv (forty-two maps, including eight news maps on a total of sixtysheets); the other is in Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities ResearchCenter, University of Texas–Austin (twenty-one maps of clearly Frisiantowns and regions, including ten news maps on nineteen sheets). Thereis still a third atlas in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, which con-tains illustrations that do not differ in any essential way from those inthe Dresden atlas. It is possible that this atlas was copied from the sameoriginal as were those in Dresden and Austin. The maps in the atlasesin Dresden and Austin are produced in facsimile, in color, and accom-panied by exhaustive explanations in Schroor and Van den Heuvel, DeRobles atlassen.

176. Schroor and Van den Heuvel, De Robles atlassen, 46.177. Van den Heuvel, “Papiere bolwercken,” 69–89. Van den Heuvel

describes in detail the planning and construction of the fortification ofThionville, based on various manuscript maps.

178. On Specklin, see Albert Fischer, Daniel Specklin aus Straßburg(1536 –1589): Festungsbaumeister, Ingenieur und Kartograph (Sig-maringen: Thorbecke, 1996), and Meurer, Fontes cartographici Or-teliani, 243– 44.

179. See Frans Westra, Nederlandse ingenieurs en de fortificatie-werken in het eerste tijdperk van de Tachtigjarige Oorlog, 1573–1604(Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1992), 20–21.

made a design for a local fortress in 1573. Another engi-neer, Jan Faiet, worked under the command of Philip II in1573 reinforcing the border and harbor town of Sluis.Some engineers from the northern Low Countries alsochanged their allegiance to the Spanish side.

A manuscript atlas dating from the beginning of theEighty Years War contains, among other things, twentyfortress plans from the northern Low Countries from theperiod 1570–78, which were probably commissioned byGilles de Berlaymont, commander of the southern LowCountries.180 These fortress plans form an important linkbetween Jacob van Deventer’s maps and the later designsthat Dutch engineers produced in response to the need formodernization of municipal fortifications. The fortressesmapped include those from the present-day provinces ofNorth and South Holland (Muiden, Nieuwpoort,Schoonhoven, Vianen, and Weesp), Utrecht (Oudewater,Utrecht, Wijk bij Duurstede, and IJsselstein), Gelderland(Arnhem, Buren, Culemborg, Doesburg, Doetinchem, El-burg, Groenlo, Tiel, Wageningen, and Zutphen), andOverijssel (Kampen, Oldenzaal, and Zwolle). De Berlay-mont—baron of Hierges and governor of Gelderland,


Overijssel, and Lingen (from 1572) and of Holland, Zee-land, and Utrecht (from 1574)—visited all of these placesduring his campaigns between 1570 and 1578. Van denHeuvel cautiously attributed the drawings in the atlas tosomeone from outside the area, the royal artist JacquesDubroeucq.181

In the period between 1580 and 1680, a number ofDutch officers were recruited by the Spanish to serve asmilitary engineers. Contrary to the history of the militarysurveys in France, which developed into a Dépôt de la

fig. 43.22. MAP OF THE FRISIAN VILLAGE OF DRON-RIJP FROM THE DE ROBLES ATLAS.

180. The manuscript atlas contains a total of fifty sepia drawings onforty-two sheets, embellished with carefully executed cartouches withplace-names in French, dates, and scale markings. In addition to themaps of fortifications in the northern Low Countries, the drawings con-sist of designs for modern fortifications and views of distant battles inthe Mediterranean Sea area and along the Danube. Since 1997, the at-las has been in the collection of the Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden (At-las 440). See Charles van den Heuvel, “Een atlas voor Gilles de Berlay-mont, baron van Hierges: Belegeringsscenes, stadsplattegronden enfortificatie-ontwerpen voor een ‘soldat-gentilhomme,’ 1570–1578,”Caert-Thresoor 15 (1996): 57–69. There is also a description for everydrawing in the atlas.

181. Van den Heuvel, “Een atlas voor Gilles de Berlaymont,” 61–64.

Size of the original: ca. 43 � 58 cm. Photograph courtesy ofthe Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (Schr. 26, F. 96, Nr. 10, Bl. 21).

Guerre, it was not until 1709 that the Spanish army cre-ated a corps of military engineers, founded by GeorgeProsper Verboom.182 But the political situation in theSouthern Provinces forced the Spanish government to de-fend their territory both against the armies of the UnitedProvinces in the north that were revolting and, after theTreaty of Westphalia in 1648, against the armies ofFrance in the south.

Military topographical maps and plans of fortresses andof fortified towns in the Southern Provinces dating fromthe period 1580–1680 are preserved in various collec-tions, the best known of which is the Lepoivre collec-tion.183 Pierre Lepoivre, born at Bergen (Mons), served asan architect and engineer under the duke of Alba and theduke of Parma. After his retirement, he copied plans andmaps for which he received payment from the royal coun-cil.184 There is another collection of manuscript drawingsof fortifications, supplemented by a text on military engi-neering by Lepoivre.185 A manuscript atlas with sixty-three town plans and topographical maps of the SouthernProvinces of the Low Countries was drawn by an officernamed Bernard de Gomme, who served under PrinceFrederik Hendrik of Orange between 1640 and 1645.186

Other military engineers included Salomon van Es, knownas the architect of the fortress of Charleroy.187 One of hisassistants, the Spaniard Sebastián Fernández de Medrano,was a teacher at the military academy at Brussels.

Several collections of topographical maps and townplans of the Southern Provinces dating from the period1580–1680 (a period of almost continuous warfare) arepreserved in Spanish archives. These cartographic docu-ments were promptly dispatched to Madrid by the Raadvan State (Council of State) from Brussels.188

In the war with Spain, the Seven United Provinces heldtwo vital strategic positions: they maintained dominanceover the Scheldt River, effectively blockading Antwerpfrom the sea, and the Rhine River, affording them openaccess to central Europe. In response, the Spanish gov-ernment had two solutions to neutralize the advantagesof the north: a project to dig a new canal between the sea-port of Grevelingen in Flanders and the Scheldt River189

and the completion in 1628 of the remarkable Fossa Eu-geniana, a canal connecting the Rhine with the Meuse.The name of Michael Florent van Langren is inextricablytied to the mapping of this canal. Van Langren, a wartimeengineer and cartographer, was the author of regionalmaps of the Belgian provinces and a map of Brabant from1635. However, he was a representative of the Spanish in-terests and carried out mapping in the Southern Provinces.As an engineer, he surveyed the Meuse and Rhine canalbetween Venlo and Rheinberg.190 With this canal, theSpanish planned to divert northbound traffic on theRhine into Spanish-occupied territory. It was completedin two years (1626 –28), but, due to a shortage of water,


never worked. Given the limited knowledge and technol-ogy of hydrology of the time, the surveying of the canalwas most ambitious. Leveling, in particular, suffered fromimprecise instruments.

Van Langren’s map of the canal was the first on whichthe scale was expressed as a representative fraction, inthis case 1:140,000.191 At that time, scale was tradition-ally expressed as so many roeden op de duim (rods in oneinch). Willem Jansz. Blaeu reduced the scale of this mapto approximately 1:400,000 for incorporation in HugoGrotius’s Grollae obsidio cum annexis and in his own at-las of 1630, but Blaeu did not acknowledge Van Langrenas the author.192

dutch military mapping from 1579, mainly in the northern provinces

In the long-term struggle for independence by the SevenUnited Provinces, large battles and sieges were carriedout, while almost all towns built new fortifications. Mil-itary scholarship flourished, especially after 1590, whenGovernor Johan Maurits van Nassau began to force theSpanish out of the northern Low Countries. Fortressbuilding comprised one of the most important parts ofthis scholarship, and its most distinguished representa-tives were Simon Stevin and Adriaan Anthonisz.

At the time of the Republic of the Seven United Prov-inces, military cartography differentiated itself from gen-eral cartography. Due to the lack of any strong central

182. Claire Lemoine-Isabeau et al., Belgische cartografie in Spaanseverzamelingen van de 16de tot de 18de eeuw: 1 october–17 november1985, Koninklijk Museum van het Leger en van Krijgsgeschiedenis,Brussel, exhibition catalog (Brussels: Gemeentekrediet, 1985), esp. 20and 97.

183. Now in Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium. See Leópold De-villers, “Le Poivre (Pierre),” Biographie nationale de Belgique (Brussels:Thiry-van Buggenhoudt, 1866 –), vol. 2, cols. 888–91.

184. Joseph van den Gheyn et al., eds., Catalogue des manuscrits dela Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique (Brussels, 1901–), 11:234 – 42, con-tains the complete inventory of the Lepoivre collection.

185. Madrid, Palacio Real, MS. II 523.186. BL, Map Collection of George III, 4 Tab. 48.187. His collection of manuscript plans of fortified towns is preserved

in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS. 12792.188. A selection from this Spanish material was published in

Lemoine-Isabeau et al., Belgische cartografie.189. A manuscript dated 1616 showing the design of the project is at

Simancas, Archivio General, MPD VI, 29; see Lemoine-Isabeau et al.,Belgische cartografie, 59–60.

190. A. J. Veenendaal, “De Fossa Eugeniana,” Bijdragen voor degeschiedenis der Nederlanden 11 (1956): 2–39, esp. 36 –37, andH. A. M. van der Heijden, “Nogmaals: De Fossa Eugeniana,” Caert-Thresoor 17 (1998): 25–31.

191. See Peter van der Krogt, “Het verhoudingsgetal als schaal en deeerste kaart op schaal 1:10000,” Kartografisch Tijdschrift 21, no. 1/Nederlands Geodetisch Tijdschrift: Geodesia 37, no. 1 (1995): 3–5.

192. MCN, 4:107–8.

authority, general cartography rarely exceeded the bound-aries of a single province. Thanks to the Union of Utrechtin 1579, defense became one of the few areas in whichthere was some centralization. Military mapmakers werenot limited by provincial boundaries and thus producedmaps that went beyond them. Moreover, there were fewercivilian maps available of areas of interest to the military—the “frontiers”—than there were of the economic centerof the republic.193 This kind of mapping thus occupied aspecial place in the development of the cartography of theLow Countries.

Military Engineers and Land Surveyors

Land surveying as a profession grew in connection withthe growth of the Dutch economy and infrastructure andthe reclamation of land from lakes and the sea.194 Engi-neers in the Low Countries had to be adept at all aspectsof their profession—designing and building fortifica-tions, carrying out the flooding of defense lines (inunda-tions), designing trenches, and, finally, preparing maps.

In the southern portion of the areas in revolt, the firstrequests for engineers to aid them against the Spanish en-emy were made to the States General beginning in 1576.In that year, the city of Namen requested an engineer whowas experienced in putting explosives under fortifica-tions.195 Many engineers from the northern and southernLow Countries—who had originally worked for Spain—were subsequently engaged by the States General to workin the Southern Provinces. Some Italian experts were alsoemployed by the States General. After the loss of Antwerpin 1585, some engineers moved to the northern LowCountries, while other fortress builders (again) opted towork for Spain. Long-term service was not usual, andspecific professional training was not yet available; expe-rience as a surveyor, architect, carpenter, or bricklayerwas usually the decisive factor in employment.196

Holland, the most important province in revolt, wasthe first to employ a permanent engineer. Adriaan An-thonisz. was named master of fortifications in 1579. Notlong after that, in 1584, he was appointed superintendentof fortifications when the provinces of Holland andUtrecht were threatened by Spanish invasions and plun-dering. In this way, the province of Holland took the firststeps toward centralization of a fortification system. Un-der Maurits van Nassau, commander in chief of the statearmy beginning in 1589, this development was speededby military reforms. Military technology was given highpriority, and engineers began to play a more importantrole in it. The number of military engineers increased: in1590, there were thirteen engineers working for variousauthorities, but by 1598, there were more than twenty-five.197 A fresh impetus was provided in 1599, whenMaurits expanded the job description for engineers. Their

training appears to have been completely directed towardthe building of fortifications.198

The foundation for a corps of military engineers wasthus laid. Part of this development included the establish-ment of a program in engineering at the University of Lei-den in 1600.199 Maurits had this kind of background him-self, for it was his friend and teacher Simon Stevin who putthe program together. This program included courses inmathematics, engineering, and land surveying. A similarcourse was founded in the Frisian Academy at Franeker,where from 1598 to 1635 the lectures were conducted byAdriaan Metius, son of Adriaan Anthonisz. A crucial in-novation, in view of the period, was the use of the Dutchlanguage in these university courses. The recruitment ofmilitary engineers depended more and more on the avail-ability of young men without a Latin school education.

Stevin himself did not lecture at the university, but in-stead two professors were appointed: Symon Fransz. vander Merwen and Ludolf van Ceulen, both well-knownland surveyors who were each given the title meester inde Duytsche Mathematicque (master of Dutch mathe-matics). In 1600, the first Dutch textbooks on land sur-veying were published: Practijck des lantmetens(fig. 43.23) and Van het gebruyck der geometrische in-strumenten (Leiden: Jan Bouwens) by Johannes Sems andJan Pietersz. Dou (or Douw).200 The works of Sems andDou provided a good foundation for the beginning engi-neer, although practical experience continued to be ofgreat importance. A more didactically sound course insurveying appeared during the seventeenth century, de-veloped by Mattheus van Nispen: De beknopte lant-meetkonst (Dordrecht, 1662).201

The influence of the works of Stevin on the develop-ment of applied mathematics in the Low Countries is offundamental importance.202 Stevin introduced the deci-


193. F. W. J. Scholten, Militaire topografische kaarten en stadsplatte-gronden van Nederland, 1579–1795 (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto,1989), 5.

194. Westra gives an overview of fifty engineers, including theirsalaries and activities, in the Low Countries for the period 1572–1604(Nederlandse ingenieurs, 98–107). Scholten also provides a list of engi-neers, but for the period 1579–1795 (Militaire topografische kaarten,168–95). His survey includes other preparers of military maps as well.

195. Westra, Nederlandse ingenieurs, 22.196. Westra, Nederlandse ingenieurs, 22–35.197. Westra, Nederlandse ingenieurs, 62.198. Scholten, Militaire topografische kaarten, 14.199. See Westra, Nederlandse ingenieurs, 82–89.200. For a complete description of these surveying books, see Pouls,

De landmeter, 246 –51.201. See Th. W. Harmsen, De Beknopte Lant-Meet-Konst: Beschrij-

ving van het leven en werk van de Dordtse landmeter Mattheus vanNispen (circa 1628–1717) (Delft: Delftse Universitaire Pers, 1978), andPouls, De landmeter, 251–54.

202. Dirk Jan Struik, Het land van Stevin en Huygens (Amsterdam:Pegasus, 1958).

mal fraction, for which he is known in the history ofmathematics, but he also wrote fundamental treatises on the art of navigation, on draining by windmills, oncosmography (in 1608, before Galileo, he published apreference for the Copernican solar system), on practi-cal geometry and, most extensively, on fortification (Desterctenbouwing).203 Several of his pupils, after careers inthe army, were hired by foreign princes to conduct forti-fication works in their territories or to organize the recla-mation of marshlands; for example, Cornelis Vermuydenwas employed for the drainage of the fens in Englandabout 1630– 40.

The program at the University of Leiden started withabout thirty students and continued until 1681. In addi-tion to military engineers, several land surveyors prepar-ing themselves for the examination took the courses.Moreover, other courses in land surveying were given atFraneker and at Groningen as well as at private schools intowns all over the country. Of the 187 land surveyors inthe province of Holland who were admitted as gesworenlandmeter (sworn land surveyor) at the court of Holland

in the period 1602– 41, 69 had studied at Leiden in theDuytsche Mathematicque.204 The reputation of the Leidenprogram increased in direct proportion to the increase infortress-building expertise achieved in the republic, andmany engineers from the northern Low Countries thusalso found employment abroad.205 During the course ofthe seventeenth century, however, the training began tolose prestige. Partly as a result of later competition be-tween the professor Frans van Schooten Jr. and the exam-iner Johan Jansz. Stampioen, in 1648 the Duytsche Mathe-maticque stopped admitting surveyors.206

Four years after the establishment of the DuytscheMathematicque, in 1604, the States Council (Raad vanState) decided to apply the Rijnlandse Roede as a stan-dard unit of measure for fortress building and cartogra-phy. Given the countless local standards in existence, thedefinition of a single standard for a group of engineers op-erating nationally was necessary. Also, at the instigationof Maurits van Nassau, a special corps of military engi-neers (ingenieurs-géographes) was founded with the taskof supervising the fortification works. Stevin was ap-pointed army mapmaker from 1604;207 from 1599, FlorisBalthasarsz. and his son Balthasar Florisz. van Bercken-rode had accompanied the armies of the United Provincesas their surveyor and mapmaker.

The work of Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode is rep-resentative of the period after 1620. As a land surveyor,he was employed in the army of Maurits van Nassau andlater Prince Frederik Hendrik. Land surveyors, who werealso military engineers, were called on to play a more ac-tive role in warfare through the construction of fortifica-tions and the development of techniques for besieging for-tified towns. In 1636, this versatile land surveyor waspromoted to the states’ surveyor and mapmaker.

The province of Holland was already adequately cov-ered by maps detailed enough to allow the compilation ofa topographical map at a scale of about 1:110,000. Thatwas the scale deemed fit for a military topographical map,an opinion that prevailed during the next two centuries.However, a military survey of the United Provinces didnot exist and was in fact impossible during that period ofindependent provincial sovereignty. It was already a greatsacrifice for the provinces to agree to rely on one army


fig. 43.23. TITLE PAGE OF PRACTIJCK DES LANT-METENS, BY JOHANNES SEMS AND JAN PIETERSZ.DOU, 1600.Photograph courtesy of the Universiteitsbibliotheek Amster-dam (2404 F 13 [1]).

203. See Ernst Crone et al., eds., The Principal Works of SimonStevin, 5 vols. (Amsterdam: C. V. Swets and Zeitlinger, 1955–66).

204. See Muller and Zandvliet, Admissies, 25–26.205. See Westra, Nederlandse ingenieurs, 75–81, and Pouls, De land-

meter, 288–331. In addition to engineers, Pouls mainly discusses the ac-tivity of Dutch surveyors abroad.

206. Scholten, Militaire topografische kaarten, 16.207. About several maps that may have been produced by Simon

Stevin, see Frans Westra, “Bestaan er getekende militair-topografischekaarten of vestingplannen van Simon Stevin?” Caert-Thresoor 12(1993): 82–86.

commander and one supervisor for the fortificationworks. Not until 1815 was a military survey founded tosurvey and prepare a uniformly drawn topographicalmap at a scale 1:25,000.208

Mapping of Fortifications and Inundations (Flooding of Defense Lines)

The history of Dutch military cartography is similar tothat of other countries in the making and use of plans offortified towns and topographical maps for military campaigns. It differs in one respect: mapmaking for in-undations.

In 1579, by means of the Treaty of Utrecht between theprovinces of the Low Countries in revolt, an administra-tion was established that encompassed all the joint mili-tary activities in the union, including the military surveys.Under the authority of the States Council, several newlyappointed military engineers renewed the fortifications ofthe walled cities in the Northern Provinces. Instead of theold Dutch method of building a strong wall with a moatin front, the modern Italian method of building fortifica-tion outside the city wall was applied. As the union was atwar with Spain, the towns had to withstand Spanishsieges, and the rural country had to be protected by de-fense lines against ransacking armies. Both kinds of de-fense operations necessitated terrain surveys and thedrawing of topographic maps and town plans. These wereundertaken not only by the engineers and land surveyorsunder the command of the States Council but also by en-gineers and land surveyors of the individual provinces ap-pointed by the states.

The land surveyor and fortress engineer Adriaan An-thonisz. of Alkmaar introduced the Italian system of forti-fication.209 During his lifetime, he was the most importantengineer employed by the government. Anthonisz. notonly provided a large number of fortified towns with newdefense systems, but also made significant contributions incartography. Plans of almost all of the towns in the North-ern Provinces dating from the period 1579–1620 (the pe-riod when Anthonisz. was at work) have been preserved(fig. 43.24).210 A large number of these plans were drawnby Anthonisz., although Johan van Rijswijck, JacobKemp, and David van Orliens were also among the distin-guished mapmakers. Town plans from this period werecharacterized by a heavy emphasis on fortifications; theyseldom showed the topography of the inner city. The con-temporary strategic preference for sieges with rather staticarmies explains the relatively large number of plans thathave survived in comparison to the number of topograph-ical maps. The actual hostilities took place around the bor-der towns, such as Oostende (1601– 4), Bergen op Zoom(1622), Breda (1625 and 1637), and ’s-Hertogenbosch

(1629), which had been changed by expanded fortifica-tions at strategic points.

Another defense operation that required terrain sur-veys and engineering works was inundation. By floodingstrips of low land, the Dutch were able to more effectivelyand less expensively build defense lines by which they suc-cessfully checked foreign invaders. The defense of citiesagainst Spanish armies resulted in the first planned inun-dations in the military history of the Low Countries. Therelief of Leiden from the Spanish besiegers in 1574 im-pressed and encouraged the Dutch population but wasimportant news in Europe as well. To commemorate thisexceptional military operation, a large topographic mapin the form of a wall tapestry was woven at the workshopof Joost Jansz. Lanckaert at Delft (fig. 43.25).211 It shows


fig. 43.24. ADRIAAN ANTHONISZ.’S PLAN OF THEFORTIFIED CITY OF AMERSFOORT, 1594.Photograph courtesy of the Nationaal Archief, The Hague(VTH 3 516).

208. The resulting maps were made by the royal decree of Willem Iand were published between 1850 and 1864 at a scale of 1:50,000.

209. On Adriaan Anthonisz., see Scholten, Militaire topografischekaarten, 19– 20, and Westra, Nederlandse ingenieurs, 36 – 44.

210. Scholten, Militaire topografische kaarten, 22–23, and W. H.Schukking, “Over den ouden vestingbouw in Nederland in de zestiende,zeventiende en achttiende eeuw,” Oudheidkundig Jaarboek, 4th ser.,vol. 6, no. 6 (1937): 1–26. Westra gives an overview of seventy hand-drawn military maps and military-topographical maps made by Dutchengineers during the period from about 1570 to about 1600 (Neder-landse ingenieurs, 108–12). Scholten’s work also contains a list of about400 (hand-drawn and printed) military town maps, which cover the pe-riod 1579–1795 (pp. 203–25). The same applies to his review of 176military topographical maps. The town maps and the topographicalmaps are all located in The Hague, Nationaal Archief.

211. A reduced reproduction of this wall tapestry (a facsimile with anoverlay) appeared in 1974: Studio Loridan et al., [Het Lanckaerttapijt][Leiden: Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, 1974].

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the purposely inundated environment of the walled townwith the Dutch marine troops in barges attacking theSpanish troops in their entrenchments from behind, caus-ing them to retreat.

Later, strips of land extending over hundreds of squarekilometers were surveyed, leveled, and put onto manu-script maps to serve as a base for inundation works.Thanks to those survey operations, the Dutch historiansof today have at their disposal detailed topographicalmaps of the so-called Hollandse Waterlinie (Holland wa-ter defense system), which protected the province of Hol-land, the Gelderse Waterlinie, and the water defense sys-tems in Flanders and Brabant. By making their enemy, thesea with its tides, into their ally, the Dutch stopped for-eign invaders several times.212

In addition to maps of the planned inundations, mili-tary topographical maps of natural barriers that func-tioned as defense lines were also produced. These mapsgenerally show a sharply defined area, such as that bor-dered by the rivers Rhine, IJssel, and Waal. Beyond thetopography of the rivers themselves, little of the sur-rounding terrain is depicted. The mapped image is notmuch different from those of civilian surveyors’ maps ofthe time; the style of illustration is that of the landscapescene. However, the emphasis of the military topograph-ical map was on the natural barriers formed by rivers,swamps, and salt marshes.213

Summary Remarks

Until the mid-sixteenth century, official cartography inthe Low Countries was no different from that developingelsewhere in Europe. In the Middle Ages, the use of mapswas not yet commonplace, and few of them have beenpreserved. Primarily produced by artists, most of thesemaps were not based on systematic measurement. The re-sult was a combination of pictorial and abstract carto-graphic elements.

The development of a cartographic consciousness thatbegan to appear in Europe about 1500 affected the LowCountries, and maps were used more and more in land ac-counting, water maintenance, jurisprudence, and militaryoperations. During the course of the sixteenth century, sur-veyors began to occupy themselves with map production.Geographers and fortress builders became adept at mea-suring terrain. This development expressed itself, amongother ways, in one of the characteristic and rejuvenatinghigh points of sixteenth-century cartography in the LowCountries: the creation of manuscript plans of all cities ofthe Low Countries by geographer Jacob van Deventer.

Van Deventer’s printed maps of the Northern Provincesand Jacques and Jean Surhon’s maps of the SouthernProvinces provided the seedbed for a rich tradition of re-gional topographical mapping in the Low Countries from

the second half of the sixteenth century until the end ofthe seventeenth century. At the end of the sixteenth cen-tury, the political constitution of the Low Countries wassubject to drastic changes. These changes also involvedchanges in the authorities responsible for official map-ping. During the main part of the sixteenth century, the Seventeen Provinces were centrally ruled by theHabsburg-Spanish empire under Charles V and by theSpanish kingdom under his successor, Philip II. The revoltof the seven Northern Provinces led to the developmentof a federal political structure. Consequently, differentpolitical bodies were now responsible for official map-ping. Surveying and mapping fell under provincial andnot federal authority. The period from 1600 to 1670 wastherefore characterized by rather chaotic topographicmapping. In the mapping of the western provinces, a car-tographic phenomenon unique to the Low Countriesarose: waterschap mapping. The struggle against the seaallowed the people of the Low Countries to become trueexperts in the area of maritime cartography beginning in the sixteenth century. Because of its specific nature,waterschap mapping remained a Dutch phenomenon.The influence of the resulting detailed topographic mapsdid not reach beyond Dutch borders.

An important impetus in the development of official car-tography in the Low Countries was military mapping. Inthe beginning, strategic surveying of towns and provinceswas done on commission from the Spanish crown. Italianengineers were involved in these efforts on more than oneoccasion. Beginning in 1579, the year in which the revoltof the northern Low Countries got its political start, engi-neers and surveyors from the Low Countries also beganmapping with renewed vigor. They produced maps of for-tifications, battles, and border areas. Distinctive inunda-tion maps were also produced. Military cartography dur-ing the period of the Republic of the Seven UnitedProvinces was more centrally organized than other typesof official mapping. Military mapmakers were thereforeable to produce interregional maps.

The official cartography of the Low Countries becameincreasingly rigorous during the course of the sixteenthcentury. In the Southern Provinces, commercial cartogra-phy joined this development at an early stage. For thenorthern Low Countries, a solid cartographic foundationdeveloped which would result in a worldwide carto-graphic monopoly in seventeenth-century Amsterdam.


212. Indeed, since the beginning of the uprising against Spain in 1567,the Low Countries have been invaded eight times, by Spanish armies in1568–1648; French armies in 1672, 1702–13, 1747– 49, and 1795–1813; Prussian armies in 1787; German armies in 1940; and Alliedarmies in 1944 – 45. In all of these wars, the Dutch waterlines were inoperation.

213. Scholten, Militaire topografische kaarten, 23–25.

appendix 43.1 The First Printed Dutch Maps of the (Mainly) Dutch Provinces inthe Middle of the Sixteenth Century, 1538–1581

Region Shown Year Designer First Printed Reprint or Copy Copy (Copper Engraving)

Flanders 1538 Pieter van der Pieter de Keysere Bernard van den Gerard de Jode (Antwerp, Beke (Torrentinus) (Ghent, 1538), Putte (1558) ca. 1565), 2 sheets, 54 �

woodcut, 4 sheets, 73 cm75 � 99 cm

1540 Gerardus Mercator Gerardus Mercator Remigius Hogenberg (Louvain, 1540), (Mechelen, ca. 1562), copper engraving, 1 sheet, 36 � 49 cm9 sheets, 95 �123 cm

Brabant Before Jacob van Deventer Jacob van Deventer Arnold Nicolai Gerard de Jode (Antwerp, 1536 (ca. 1536), (Antwerp, 1558), 1565), 2 sheets, 56 � 62.5

woodcut, 6 sheets woodcut, 6 sheets, cm; Gerard de Jode 82.5 � 76.5 cm (Antwerp, ca. 1568),

1 sheet, 35 � 49 cm; FransHogenberg (Cologne,1581), 1 sheet, 36 � 42 cm

Holland Before Jacob van Deventer Jacob van Deventer Bernard van den Gerard de Jode (Antwerp, 1542 (1542), woodcut, Putte (Antwerp, 1565), 2 sheets, 72.5 �

9 sheets 1558), woodcut, 54 cm; Cornelis de Hooghe9 sheets, 110.5 � ([Antwerp], 1565), 1 sheet, 79 cm 50 � 36 cm; Joannes and

Lucas van Doetecum,Nicolaas Liefrincx (TheHague, 1569), 6 sheets, 86� 82 cm

Gelderland 1543 Jacob van Deventer Jacob van Deventer Anonymous Gerard de Jode (Antwerp, (1543), copper (Antwerp, 1556), 1574)engraving, 9 sheets copper engraving,

9 sheets, 93 � 79 cm1558 Christiaan Sgrooten Hieronymus Cock

(Antwerp, 1564?), copper engraving, 6 sheets, 82 �77 cm; Bernard van den Putte (Antwerp, 1564 –70), ? sheets

Zeeland 1547 Jacob van Deventer Jacob van Deventer Willem Sylvius (1547–50), copper (Antwerp, 1560), engraving, 4 sheets copper engraving,

4 sheets, 51 � 70 cmFriesland 1545 Jacob van Deventer Jacob van Deventer Bernard van den Gerard de Jode (Antwerp, Groningen (1545), woodcut, Putte (Antwerp, before 1568), 53 � 44 cmDrenthe 9 sheets 1559), woodcut,Overijssel 9 sheets, 89 � 79 cmHainaut 1548 Jacques de Surhon Frans Hogenberg Abraham Ortelius

(Cologne, 1572), (Antwerp, 1579), copper engraving copper engraving,

1 sheet (Theatrum)Namur 1555 Jean de Surhon Idem (1579)Luxembourg 1551 Jacques de Surhon Idem (1579) Christiaan Sgrooten (1567)Artois Ca. 1554 Jacques de Surhon Idem (1579)Picardy 1557 Jean de Surhon Idem (1579)Vermandois 1557? Jean de Surhon Arnold Nicolai Idem (1579)

(Antwerp, 1558), copper engraving

Sources: Derived from H. A. M. van der Heijden, Oude kaarten der Nederlanden, 1548–1794: Historische beschouwing, kaartbeschrijving,afbeelding, commentaar / Old Maps of the Netherlands, 1548–1794: An Annotated and Illustrated Cartobibliography, 2 vols. (Alphen aan denRijn: Canaletto/Repro-Holland; Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 1998), 1:28–31, and Y. Marijke Donkersloot–De Vrij, Topografische kaarten vanNederland vóór 1750: Handgetekende en gedrukte kaarten, aanwezig in de Nederlandse rijksarchieven (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff andBouma’s Boekhuis, 1981).

1292

appendix 43.2 Printed WATERSCHAP Maps, 1572–1650

Year Maker Title Size and Scale Copies (Not Inclusive) Referencesa

[Ca. 1572] Adriaan Caerte van het 35 � 27 cm, Haarlem, Rijksarchief Kamp (1971), with Anthonisz. Hontbos ende ca. 1:43,000 in Noord-Holland (nr. facsimile; Donkersloot–

Zijplant . . . 1363); Leiden, De Vrij (1981), no. 674Universiteitsbibliotheek (Port. 31, nr. 69)

1600 Baptista van Zypae 47 � 58.5 cm, Amsterdam, Donkersloot–De Vrij Doetecum ca. 1:25,000 Universiteitsbibliotheek (1981), no. 96

(O.K. 67); Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek (Port. 31, nr. 70)

1607 Pieter Caarte vande 37 � 45.5 cm, Amsterdam, De Vries (1983), 1, Cornelisz. gheleghentheyt ca. 1:40,000 Rijksprentenkabinet with facsimile; Cort vande Beemster . . . (RP-P-AO-7a-1); Leiden, Donkersloot–De Vrij

Universiteitsbibliotheek (1981), no. 711 (Port. 30, nr. 62)

1611 Adriaan Wieringer Waert 63 � 74.5 cm, Amsterdam, Donkersloot–De Vrij Anthonisz. ca. 1:13,000 Universiteitsbibliotheek (1981), no. 100

(21-14-01, I-2-A-5[47], I-2-A-5[46] and 23-04-05); The Hague,Algemeen Rijksarchief (VTH 2498A and VTH 2498B)

1611 Floris VVare 98 � 92 cm First edition in The Postma (1972), with Balthasarsz. Afbeeldinghe (11 sheets), Hague, Nationaal facsimile; Donkersloot–

Vant dyckgraef- ca. 1:28,000 Archief (VTH 2338A) De Vrij (1981), schap Van no. 719; Hameleers Delfland (1986), 435– 43

1611 Floris . . . Caert van 99 � 150 cm Amsterdam, Crol (1972), withBalthasarsz. Schielandt . . . (15 sheets), Universiteitsbibliotheek facsimile; Donkersloot–

ca. 1:19,000 (10-B-21 and De Vrij (1981), 720;1801-A-14); Delft, Oud Hameleers (1986)Archief Delfland (K.V.D.:1.006)

[Ca. 1612] Lucas Jansz. [Kaart van de 60 � 84.5 cm First edition in De Vries (1983), 2A–Sinck Beemster] (2 sheets), Archiefdienst voor 2E, with facsimile;

ca. 1:23,000 Kennemerland (51-301); Donkersloot–De Vrij Leiden, (1981), no. 131 Universiteitsbibliotheek (Port. 30, nr. 41)

[1613] Anonymous [Kaart van de 18 � 23 cm, First edition in Leiden, De Vries (1983), 7A Beemster] ca. 1:50,000 Universiteitsbibliotheek and 7B, with facsimile.

(Thysius pamflet 1830); private collection

1615 Floris [Kaart van het 165 � 162 cm First edition in Leiden, Hart (1972), with Balthasarsz. hoogheemraadschap (20 sheets), Universiteitsbibliotheek facsimile; Donkersloot–

Rijnland] ca. 1:30,000 (Port. 13, nr. 9 and De Vrij (1981), 715Atlas 184); BL (Klencke Atlas)

1622 Lucas Jansz. Caerte van de 85 � 100 cm First edition in The Donkersloot–De Vrij Sinck Purmer (4 sheets), Hague, Nationaal (1981), no. 147

ca. 1:10,000 Archief (VTH 2635)

1293

appendix 43.2 (continued)


1624 Jan Pietersz. Caerte vande 19.5 � Leiden, Oud Archief Dou Lisser Polder . . . 32.5 cm, Rijnland (A.1219);

ca. 1:14,000 Leiden, Universiteits-bibliotheek (IV-8-2)

1626/27 Reijer Caerte vande 46 � 72 cm, First edition in Donkersloot–De Vrij Cornelisz. et al. Wormer . . . ca. 1:13,000 Leiden, Universiteits- (1981), no. 146

bibliotheek (Port. 29, nr. 141); Wageningen, Landbouwuniversiteit (RKK 87)

1628 S. N. Caarte vande 26 � 47 cm, Amsterdam, Donkersloot–De Vrij Boonacker Buyckslooter, ca. 1:18,000 Rijksprentenkabinet (1981), no. 151

Broecker ende (RP-P-AO-7a-21); Belmer Meeren . . . Leiden, Universiteits-

bibliotheek (Port. 29, nr. 164)

1629 Nicolaas Caerte vande 47 � 71.5 cm, Amsterdam, Donkersloot–De Vrij Bonifatius Naerder ofte ca. 1:15,000 Rijksprentenkabinet (1981), no. 180

Uijtermeerse Meer (RP-P-AO-8-59); Leiden, Universiteits-bibliotheek (Port. 24, nr. 5)

1631 Anthonis Caerte van de 56 � 56 cm, Amsterdam, Donkersloot–De Vrij, Adriaensz. Heer-Huygen- ca. 1:25,000 Universiteitsbibliotheek (1981), no. 118; Metius et al. Waert . . . (23-05-29, I-2-A-5 [63] Hameleers (1987),

and I-2-A-5 [64]); The 126 –29 Hague, Nationaal Archief (VTH 2626A and VTH 2626B)

1631 Cornelis Ware afbeeldinge 18.5 � Haarlem, Rijksarchief Donkersloot–De Vrij Danckertsz. vande Watergrafs 18.5 cm, in Noord-Holland (nr. (1981), no. 162 de Rij Meer . . . ca. 1:28,000 1294); Wageningen,

Landbouwuniversiteit (RCt 232)

1635 Pieter Wils Caerte vande 48 � 62 cm, The Hague, Algemeen Donkersloot–De Vrij Scher-Meer . . . ca. 1:20,000 Rijksarchief (VTH (1981), no. 129

2638); Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek (Port. 30, nr. 68)

1638 Jan Jansz. Caerte van de 28.5 � 32 cm, Haarlem, Rijksarchief Donkersloot–De Vrij Backer Einghe-Wormer . . . ca. 1:12,500 in Noord-Holland (1981), no. 145

(nr. 1065); Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek (Port. 29, nr. 140)

1639/40 Jacob Bartelsz. Provisioneel 47.5 � 70 cm, First edition in Leiden, Donkersloot–De Vrij Veris concept ontwerp ca. 1:56,000 Universiteitsbibliotheek (1981), no. 716b

ende voorslach (Port. 23, nr. 44)dienende tot de bedyckinge vande groote water meeren

1294

appendix 43.2 (continued)


1641 Cornelis Kaarte van de 45 � 56 cm, Amsterdam, Rijks- Hordijk (1984), with Lennartsz. vry-heerlykheyd ca. 1:4000 prentenkabinet (RP-P- illustration of the map Kouter Velgers Dyck AO-14b-65); Brielle,

Waterschap de Brielse Dijkring (Inventaris Polder Drenkwaard, Velgersdijk nr. 230); The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek (1041 B 37)

[1641?] Jan Adriaansz. Caerte ende 16.5 � Haarlem, Archiefdienst Donkersloot–De Vrij Leeghwater voorbereydinge 37.5 cm, voor Kennemerland (1981), no. 716d

tot het bedyke ca. 1:165,000 (Lade X, nr. 813); Lei-vande Haerlemmer- den, Universiteitsbiblio-Meer theek (Port. 23, nr. 39)

1643 Nicolaas Caerte vande 46 � 51.5 cm, Amsterdam, Universiteits- Donkersloot–De Vrij Stierp Starnmeer . . . ca. 1:9000 bibliotheek (61-01-33); (1981), no. 127

Leiden, Universiteitsbiblio-theek (Port. 29, nr. 156)

1644 Daniël van Ware afbeeldinge 92 � 117 cm No copies of first edition De Vries (1983), 10, Breen vande bedyckte (6 sheets), known. Second edition with facsimile

Beemsterlanden . . . ca. 1:11,500 in Amsterdam, Universi-teitsbibliotheek (63-03-[33/38] and I-2-A-5[72/77]); Wageningen, Landbouw-universiteit (RKK 85 and RCt 241)

1647 Jan Jansz. Het hooge 196 � 230 cm First edition in Leiden, Hart (1969), with Dou and heymraetschap (12 sheets), Oud Archief Rijnland facsimile of the third Steven van van Rhynland ca. 1:30,000 (Atlas 8); Leiden, Univer- edition; Donkersloot–Broeckhuysen siteitsbibliotheek De Vrij (1981), no. 715

(Port. 13, nr. 9)1647 Anonymous Caerte ende 57 � 92 cm The Hague, Nationaal Donkersloot–De Vrij

afbeeldinge vande (2 sheets), Archief (VTH 2285 and (1981), no. 312ghelegentheyt der ca. 1:10,000 OBGK L2-28); Leiden, heerlyckheyt van Universiteitsbibliotheek Nieukoop . . . (Port. 15, nr. 59 and

Port. 15, nr. 60)[1650] Claes Vastensz. Afbeeldinge van 84 � 72 cm, First edition in Donkersloot–De Vrij

Stierp de Stommeer . . . ca. 1:3000 Amsterdam, Universiteits- (1981), no. 172bibliotheek Vrije Univer-siteit (LL.02745gk: 16232/od/1650); Haarlem, Rijksarchief in Noord-Holland (nr. 1988)

aThe references for this column are as follows:Crol, W. A. H. 1972. De kaart van het Hoogheemraadschap van Schieland door Floris Balthasars, 1611. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto.De Vries, Dirk. 1983. Beemsterlants caerten: Een beredeneerde lijst van oude gedrukte kaarten. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto.Donkersloot–De Vrij, Y. Marijke. 1981. Topografische kaarten van Nederland vóór 1750: Handgetekende en gedrukte kaarten, aanwezig in

de Nederlandse rijksarchieven. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff and Bouma’s Boekhuis.Hameleers, Marc. 1986. “De kaarten van Delfland en Schieland uit 1611 door Floris Balthasars.” Antiek 20, no. 8: 435– 43.———. 1987. West-Friesland in oude kaarten. Wormerveer: Stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland.Hart, G. ’t. 1972. De kaart van het Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland door Floris Balthasars, 1615. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto.———. 1969. Kaartboek van Rijnland 1746. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto.Hordijk, L. W. 1984. Inventaris van de archieven van de polder Drenkwaard 1609–1973. Brielle: Streekarchivariaat Voorne–Putten en

Rozenburg.Kamp, A. F. 1971. Proeve van beschrijving bij de caerte vant Hontbos ende Zijplant. Alkmaar.Postma, C. 1972. De kaart van het Hoogheemraadschap van Delfland door Floris Balthasars, 1611. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto.

1295

appendix 43.3 Prototypes of Printed Province Maps, 1575–1698

Date Region Shown Scale Maker Reprint or Copy

1575 North Holland Ca. 1:100,000 Joost Jansz. Bilhamer and Reprinted in 1608 and 1778Harmen Allertsz. van Warmenhuysen

1579 (Ortelius’s Groningen and Ca. 1:260,000 Sibrandus Leo Copied in later yearsTheatrum) Friesland1599 Utrecht Ca. 1:180,000 Cornelis Anthonisz. Reprinted second half seventeenth

Hornhovius century1600 Groningen and Ca. 1:180,000 David Fabricius and Later copied as atlas maps

Friesland Joannes van Doetecum1603 Limburg (duchy) ? Aegidius Martini Copied in later years since 16061606 Groningen, Ca. 1:270,000 Baptista van Doetecum

Friesland, Drenthe, and Overijssel

1616 Groningen Ca. 1:170,000 Barthold Wicheringe Copied after 16291618 Friesland Ca. 1:200,000 Nicolaas van Geelkercken Reprinted 1642 and 16651621 Holland Ca. 1:110,000 Balthasar Florisz. van Reprinted 1637, 1651, 1656, and

Berckenrode [1660–1682]; copied after 16291622 Friesland Ca. 1:170,000 Adriaan Metius and Copies in atlases by Jodocus

Gerard Freitag Hondius and Willem Jansz. Blaeu1625–35 Brabant quarter Ca. 1:200,000 Michael Florent van Copied after 1634

of Antwerp Langren1634 Meierij van Ca. 1:180,000 Willebrordus van der Copied after 1634

’s-Hertogenbosch Burght1634 Drenthe Ca. 1:200,000 Cornelis Pijnacker Copied after 1636[Before 1638] Flanders Ca. 1:190,000 Henricus Hondius and Copied 1638 by Willem Jansz.

Alexander Serhanders Blaeu1639 Gelderland and its Ca. 1:170,000– Nicolaas van Geelkercken Many copies in later years

four quarters 1:210,0001644 Luxembourg Ca. 1:250,000 Michael Florent van Langren Reprinted 1671/721650 Overijssel Ca. 1:100,000 Nicolaas ten Have Reprinted 1734; copied 1652 and

later1654/55 Zeeland Ca. 1:40,000 Zacharias Roman and Reprinted 1656, 1680, and

Nicolaas I Visscher ca. 17301656 Brabant (duchy) ca: 1:110,000 Zacharias Roman and Reprinted 1661 and 1703

Nicolaas I Visscher 1664 Friesland Ca. 1:65.000– Bernardus Schotanus à Copied as atlas maps

1:100,000 Sterringa1677/78 Groningen Ca. 1:100,000 Wilhelm and Frederik

Coenders van HelpenCa. 1681–85 Groningen Ca. 1:125,000 Ludolf Tjarda van Reprinted and copied after 1719

Starckenborgh and Nicolaas II Visscher

Ca. 1690 Holland Ca. 1:300,000 Nicolaas II Visscher Reprinted and copied after 16901696 Utrecht Ca. 1:40,000 Bernard de Roij Reprinted 17431698 Friesland Ca. 1:25,000– Bernardus Schotanus à Reprinted 1718

1:43,000 Sterringa

Source: Based mainly on C. Koeman, Geschiedenis van de kartografie van Nederland: Zes eeuwen landen zeekaarten en stadsplattegronden(Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1983), 79–109.